


Never a Normal Summer

by JoeyTaylor



Series: Clanverse [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, Ombre, kari ironhide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 06:02:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyTaylor/pseuds/JoeyTaylor
Summary: Can the Yugiverse gang ever have a normal summer?





	1. Same Old, Same Old

"Blue Eyes!" A female voice rang out, delight obvious, from a group of witches and wizards three and a half weeks out of their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Joey looked around sharply at his girlfriend's cheer. She was cheering for Kaiba's dragon?

There was no mistaking the look on her face. She revered that dragon just as much as she loved Red Eyes.

How could Kari love Blue Eyes as much as she loved Red Eyes? It made no sense to him. The pure delight in her eyes as Kari watched Blue Eyes blast her enemy away with White Lightening, made Joey wonder just what went on in his girlfriend's head.

Wait, when had he started thinking of the holograms by gender?

It was all Kaiba's fault.

Tobias, his Red Eyes Black Dragon, was sat in the rafters, watching the duels from above, and Joey could sense some sort of pride coming from his dragon. Was everyone in on the conspiracy?

Tobias wasn't the only one in the rafters, most of the Duellist's monsters were hiding up there and the blonde had been unsurprised to find that Tobias and Mana were hanging out, on the rafters' right above their heads. What had surprised him was Mana moving over to make room for Kisara, who normally kept herself aloof of the rest of the monsters, as the Blue Eyes White Dragon joined them in their Duel watching.

Joey's attention switched back to the duel as Kari jumped to her feet, a huge grin gracing her face as Kaiba merged his Blue Eyes White Dragon on the field, with the two in his hand and summoned Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

"Yes!" Kari cheered, as Blue Eyes Ultimate blasted the last of Kaiba's opponent's life points away with its Nova Attack.

Yami gave her an odd look, one that Joey interpreted as 'Kari's cheering for Kaiba why?'

Kaiba and his opponent left the arena and the announcer started up again, "Will Yami Muto and Kari Ironhide please report to the arena."

Yami and Kari grinned at each other, and then went to their respective places.

"This should be good." Joey said, with a small smile.

"Ready Kari?" Yami asked with a grin.

"Whenever you are Yami." Kari was acting more confident then she felt. This was a Duel Disk Tournament, which meant her usual tactic against the Gods, which was avoid fighting them and go directly for the players life points, which was allowed in Duelling Platform Tournaments, was in fact illegal here and she hadn't been able to come up with a way to beat them yet.

"Duel!" The two shouted their life points and holoprojecters starting up at their call.

"Lady's first." Yami half bowed.

"In that case I make this first move a good one," Kari grinned, looking at her hand, "Skilled Dark Magician, attack mode and three cards face down, for later. It's your move!"

The cards and her monster appeared, she could feel Mana's approval, and Ombre's pride, as Yami drew his first card of the game.

"I play two cards card face down and summon my King's Knight, in attack mode. It's your move Kari."

"I attack with my Skilled Dark Magician!"

Yami's life point's dropped and Kari frowned, it shouldn't have been that easy. "Because my Spellcaster attacked, I can activate my Magician's Circle, to summon the Dark Magician Girl!"

Mana was practically cheering down their link as a holographic version of her appeared on the field, "And in my second main phase, I can activate these! My two Sage's Stone!" Two Dark Magicians joined her Dark Magician Girl and Skilled Dark Magician, "Next turn I end this."

Kari watched as Yami drew, "I play Monster Reborn!" His King's Knight came back, "And activate Ultimate Offering, allowing me to summon my Queen's Knight and by special effect Jack's Knight, from my deck too." Yami's life points went down by five hundred, "Sorry Kari, this duel isn't over already, but it's in my favour."

"Oh no." Kari took an involuntary step backwards, "Not already!"

"I sacrifice my three knights, for Obelisk the Tormentor!"

Kari stared in horror as the Egyptian God arrived on the field. She knew she had to think fast but all she could think of was a certain English word beginning with f that Hermione would wash her mouth out with soap for using.

"Obelisk, attack her purple Dark Magician!"

Kari threw up an arm impulsively to shield herself from the shock waves of the attack, and felt Mana and Ombre's sympathy down the link.

Her life points dropped to 2500.

"T…tha…" Kari stammered.

"It's your turn, Kari."

"Tha… that's not fair…" Kari managed to say, her mind stuck somewhere between "F!" and I have to draw my next card.

Yami smirked slightly, admittedly it felt a bit cheap, but if he was able to do it, then summoning Obelisk this early was a viable tactic.

Kari drew and switched her monsters to defence mode. "I play one card face down and end my turn."

Yami drew and Kari took another step back at the grin that plastered itself on the Pharaoh's face, "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

"No, it's over. I summon Kuriboh to the field and use my Brain Control to steal your second Dark Magician, and sacrifice them to activate Obelisk's effect, destroying all your monsters and dealing 4000 direct life point damage."

Kari threw up both her arms in her defence, but it didn't do much as Dark Magician Girl and Skilled Dark Magician were destroyed and the arm carried on and hit her.

The blow knocked her backwards, and she hit the ground, hard, as her life points hit zero.

"Yami Muto defeats Kari Ironhide to win the quarter finals!" The announcer shouted.

The crowd cheered but Yami hadn't stayed in his Duelling box. The moment Kari's points had hit zero, he'd raced forward and was now helping her to her feet.

"You alright?"

"Which one of you wants to know?" Kari growled at him, her head spinning.

Yami looked worried and let Kari sit down, receiving a glare from Ombre and an odd look from Joey.

"Ombre, stop fussing over me and go duel Yugi." Kari growled at her yami, who wouldn't stop hovering.

Yugi had already taken his place, knowing that Kari would be alright once the initial attack damage had worn off, and Ombre quickly raced to her place.

Ombre lasted almost as long as Kari had, as Yugi took the Duel with a combo they'd never seen before.

"How is it?" Ombre asked, as Joey went up against Denpa Kawayama, a local Duellist, "We can spend a year at school learning their tactics and strategies and still get wiped out in a matter of turns?"

"Ombre, how you feel if I gave up on the professional Duelling Circuit?" Kari asked, watching as Joey played Red Eyes Black Chick in attack mode and three cards face down.

"What do you mean?" Ombre asked as Kawayama attempted to attack Joey's Black Dragon Chick and was stopped by Joey's new Gambler's Debt card, which removed the attacking monster from play.

"I'm thinking about not Duelling in tournaments anymore." Kari replied, as Joey sacrificed his chick for a the fully grown version, "I'm not that good a Duellist anymore and I just don't have time to get that good again and keep up with both school work and Kaiba Corp work." Red Eyes blasted Kawayama's warrior monster into next week.

"I don't think I'd mind that, not with you know what." Ombre said, "You'll have even less time in a few months time."

Kari snorted. She had no idea how she was going to handle Hogwarts, Kaiba Corp and parenthood. Kawayama summoned a card in defence mode.

"You are sure that Duelling won't harm the…"

"Se…Kaiba and I did extensive checks before the tournament," Kari replied, "And Kaiba even turned up the safeties." She snorted again, "That was Obelisk going easy on me!"

Ombre shook her head as Joey used a magic card to summon two more monsters and used them and his Red Eyes to win the duel. If knocking her hikari halfway across the stadium was Obelisk's idea of going easy on someone, she'd hate to see it really get pissed off.

Joey came back over and Ombre scowled as Kari kissed her boyfriend on the lips. "Well played."

"I just want to know who I'm fighting in the Semis." Joey said softly, knowing full well that whoever it was wasn't going to be easy to defeat.

The holographic display appeared in the middle of the stadium and the pictures started flashing up randomly.

"Oh come off it!" Joey complained, and then looked over at Yugi, "How am I supposed to beat him today? He's on top form!"

"Doesn't that mean Yami gets to duel Kaiba?" Ombre asked.

"Yes." Joey still sounded mad, "At least Yami's on top form too." Joey sounded slightly mollified at the thought that Yami was going to pound Kaiba into tiny little pieces.

"Will Yugi Muto and Joseph Wheeler please take their places?"

"Ok, I swear if Kaiba's getting his goons to use my full name on purpose I'm going to kill him." Joey scowled again as he took his place in the arena.

"You can go first, Joey."

"Then I open with Card Destruction!" Joey growled, "You know as well as I do what it does."

Yugi frowned as he sent his five card hand to the graveyard and drew a new one, not liking the look on Joey's face. "I play one card in face down defence mode; two cards face down and end my turn."

Yugi drew, "Two cards, face down and a card in defence mode. It's your turn Joey."

Joey frowned and drew, "I summon Garoozis and switch my face down monster to attack mode." Flame Swordsman appeared, "And they attack!"

Garoozis attacked first, the face down card appearing and then exploding.

Flame Swordsman attacked Yugi, who flinched but didn't lose any life points.

"What was that?" Joey asked. He knew what it had looked like; it had looked like a Kuriboh with wings.

"It was a new card I got in the last Booster Pack you gave me." Yugi laughed, "A Winged Kuriboh."

"Fine, but what does it do?" Joey asked.

"When Winged Kuriboh is destroyed, it protects me for the rest of the turn from any life point damage."

Joey rolled his eyes; Yugi was getting good at shielding himself, "Fine, your move."

Yugi drew and Joey blanched, he knew that look, why did he get all the bad luck in the draws? "I play Monster Reborn to bring back Winged Kuriboh and sacrifice it…" Yugi paused, giving his monster a look that said 'forgive me?'

Winged Kuriboh looked back with an 'of course' look and Yugi continued, "For this card, Summoned Skull! Attack with Lightening Strike!"

Joey growled as his Flame Swordsman was blown away.

"It's your move."

 _Is it me, or is Yuge getting a little too much like Yami?_ Joey wondered as he drew. "I play a card in defence mode and end my turn."

Yugi went to draw and Joey saw something flash in his eyes. He frowned, and then twigged as Yugi looked at the card like he wasn't quite sure how it got into his deck. "Oh sh…." Joey swore, the English swearword coming to him easily.

Yugi quickly read the field, took one look at his yami, one Joey took to mean I want to talk to you afterwards, and flipped over a trap card called Mage's Call allowing him to summon any number of normal type Spellcasters from his deck.

"Yuge?" Joey asked as Yugi took a deep breath. "You have a God don't you?"

"Uhhh." Yugi paused.

"You do realise I'm going to be pissed off if you hold back?"

"I sacrifice all three of my monsters for Slipher, the Sky Dragon!" The huge red serpent like dragon appeared, filling the Stadium and wrapping part of its body around its summoner.

 _Why didn't I keep my mouth shut?_ Joey wondered as Yugi ordered his God Card to wipe out his Garoozis. _I can't beat that thing anymore then Kari could beat Obelisk…_

"Joey, it's your turn."

Joey drew, and then stared at his hand and at the field. He had traps; he had traps that would save him against anything that Yugi had, except Slipher.

Yugi and Yami had never spilt the Gods before; they had always belonged to one or the other, never spilt like this…

"I play Little Winguard in defence mode!" Joey played the card, then realised what he'd done as Slipher's Second Mouth effect blew his monster to Kingdom come. "Turn end."

"Slipher, attack!" Slipher had four thousand attack points; Joey had nothing to defend himself with. Joey consoled himself with the fact that losing to a God Card was no shame and the fact that Yami had both Ra and Obelisk to kick Kaiba's arse with.

Yami and Kaiba glared at each other from opposite ends of the arena. Yami hadn't waited for Yugi to ask why he'd slipped Slipher into his deck but instead had come straight up after Joey's duel.

"You wanted a rematch Seto Kaiba, you got one." Yami growled.

"And this time it's going to end differently, you pompous windbag!" Kaiba growled back.

"Duel!" The two shouted at the same time.

Kaiba drew, smirking inwardly at his hand, "Lord of Dragons, attack mode, and Flute of Summoning Dragon, to summon two Blue Eyes White Dragons!" Kaiba grinned, "It's already over Muto!"

"What!" Joey yelled from the stands.

Yami actually blanched before he drew, then his face went back to normal. "One card, face down defence mode, and three cards face down." Yami said, thoughtful, "Your move."

Kaiba actually grinned, though admittedly it did look more like a smirk, "It's over Yami; I use another Flute of Summoning Dragon to summon my third Blue Eyes and a Luster Dragon number 2." Kaiba's smirk got bigger, "Luster Dragon, attacks your face down card!"

Yami's Double Coston exploded.

"Now, my Blue Eyes! Wipe him out!"

All three dragons fired their attacks at Yami.

"I activate Sakuretsu Armour!" Yami yelled.

"You can't use it on my Dragons!" Kaiba yelled but it was his Lord of Dragons that exploded.

The attacks hit.

"Yami!" Yugi bolted out of his chair.

Yami's points didn't drop.

"What?" Kaiba bellowed.

The smoke cleared and Kaiba growled.

Yami's face down card was active, Waboku.

"My trap card negates the damage from your Blue Eyes White Dragons' attacks!"

"You saved yourself, for now." Kaiba growled, "Your move."

Yami drew, "I play a card in defence mode and place one face down. It's your turn Kaiba."

Seto Kaiba didn't look so smug this time, "Luster Dragon! Attack!"

"Mirror Force!" Yami yelled, as one of his face down cards flipped up.

Kaiba growled as his dragons exploded.

"Your move." Kaiba growled.

Yami drew and grinned.

Kaiba didn't like that look.

"I sacrifice my face down card…" Another Double Coston, "For the Dark Magician!"

Yami's purple robed Dark Magician appeared on the field and the Pharaoh's smile grew slightly at Mahado's comment that it was nice to be observing this for a change.

"Dark Magician, attack Kaiba directly!"

Kaiba looked furious as his life points dropped to 1500.

"I end my turn."

"This isn't over yet, Yami." Kaiba growled, drawing.

"Monster Reborn!" Kaiba smirked, as Yami's Dark Magician was blasted away by a returning Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Yami winced and Mahado felt sorry for the destroyed Magician.

Yami's life points dropped to 3500.

"One card face down, and it's your move Yami."

Yami drew and his smirk returned, "Brain Control!"

Kaiba stared. _Every time, every single bloody time._ He thought with a growl as Yami ordered his Blue Eyes to attack her Master.

Kaiba's life points hit zero and the CEO stormed off.

There had to be a way to beat the Muto twins, but he hadn't yet found one. It should have been impossible for Yami to beat him like that, and that had been without the God Cards…

Yami rejoined his friends with a small grin at Yugi.

"How do you do it?" Joey asked with a grin, "Kaiba thought he had you there!"

"I thought he had me," Yami admitted, "If he'd been able to destroy my Mirror Force, he'd have beat me." Yami shook his head in amusement, "I think Blue Eyes is mad at me."

Yugi looked up into the rafters where Kisara was glaring at Yami.

"Yugi…" Yami murmured. Yugi looked at him, "I'm not going to go easy on you."

"I know, but be warned if I can play Slipher, I will." Yugi nodded.

"As long as you understand the same about Ra or Obelisk." Yami nodded back.

"Will the Finalists please report to the floor?" The announcer called.

Yami and Yugi grinned at each other and walked into place to the roar of the crowd.

"I'm going to beat you this time." Yugi grinned.

"No way." Yami grinned, "I'm not gonna lose."

"The Finals will be held between Yugi Muto and Yami Muto, the new King of Games."

Yugi frowned then remembered Yami had defeated Kari.

"Yugi Muto to go first. Ready?"

"Duel!" Yugi and Yami yelled at the same time and the crowd and their friends roared their approval.

Yugi drew, both his first hand and his first card and quickly decided, "Two cards face down and one in defence mode." Yugi smiled, "It's your move Yami."

"I summon my Queen's Knight and play two cards face down." Yami said, after drawing and thinking, "Queen's Knight Attack!"

Yugi's monster flipped, revealing a Man Eater Bug much to Yami's surprise.

His Knight exploded.

"I guess it's your turn, Yugi."

Yugi drew, "I play Marshmellon in defence mode and end my turn."

 _What's he up to?_ Yami wondered as he drew.

"I summon King's Knight, and attack your Man Eater Bug!"

"I activate Marshmellon Glasses!"

Yami growled as his King's Knight attacked Marshmellon instead of Man Eater Bug and he lost 1000 life points.

"I play Monster Reborn and bring back my Queen's Knight, allowing me to summon Jack's Knight. It's your move Yugi."

Yugi drew and grinned.

 _Uh oh._ Yami thought, glad that Yugi only had one other card in his hand since Yami was certain that Yugi had just drawn Slipher.

"I activate Card of Sanctity." Yugi called, "Allowing us to draw till we have six cards in our hands."

 _Damn._ Yami thought as the first two he drew were useless. The last one made him grin though.

_Obelisk._

"I summon a card in defence mode and play one card face down, your move Yami."

"Yugi," Yami drew and smirked slightly, "I sacrifice my Knights for Obelisk the Tormentor."

Yugi just grinned, "I activate Cease and Desist, stopping you from having a Battle Phase this turn."

Yami snorted, trust Yugi to be prepared.

"I guess I have to play this face down and end my turn."

"Yami, you're not the only one with a God Card." Yugi grinned, "I sacrifice my Man Eater Bug, Marshmellon and my face down card for Slipher, the Sky Dragon!"

Two Egyptian Gods faced each other down, glaring at each other over their Master's heads.

"Nice move Yugi, but we both have 4000 attack points." Yami said, "They'll just destroy each other."

Yugi looked thoughtful for a second and then ended his turn.

Yami drew and thought fast, at the end of this turn, Yugi would draw another card and Slipher would be stronger then Obelisk…

"Obelisk!" Yami made his decision, "Attack Slipher the Sky Dragon!"

"Counter attack!" Yugi yelled.

The various camera men around the arena swore as their equipment blew up as Obelisk's fist and Slipher's lighting blasted across the arena.

A huge explosion issued from the point the two attacks hit, the light from it blinding everyone.

As everyone's vision cleared, Yugi and Yami got back to their feet, looking at the devastation their attack had caused. "Oops." Yugi face faulted.

Slipher and Obelisk were gone, and Yami summoned Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode and ended his turn.

Yugi drew, still flushed in embarrassment that their attack had pretty much destroyed the arena floor.

"I repeat; that's the Gods going easy on someone?" He heard Ombre's shocked whisper.

"I play a card in defence mode!" Yugi called, setting the card, "And end my turn."

Yami grinned, Yugi was on the defensive now… "I summon Double Coston and Skilled Dark Magician attacks your face down card!"

It was a Winged Kuriboh.

Yami groaned. Yugi was playing so defensively today that Yami would need a pickaxe to get to his life points.

He knew what his hikari was up to, trying to buy time to either find a way to attack back or bring back one of the Gods.

Yami wasn't going to allow it to happen.

"I end my turn."

Yugi drew, thinking quickly before groaning mentally. Yami had the advantage now.

"One card face down, and it's your turn."

Yami drew, "I sacrifice Double Coston for the Dark Magician. Magicians attack him directly!"

"Mystic Cylinder!"

"Dust Tornado!"

The two Magician's attacks hit for 4400, wiping Yugi's life point's out.

Yugi stared… then smiled and shook his head, "Good game Yami."

"Ditto, Yugi." Yami smiled back.

Then they were swamped by the usual end of Tournament press and ceremony.

* * *

Seto Kaiba had stayed around long enough to see which of the Muto twins won the finals and then gone to shout at his tactics division on the ninth floor.

There was no way Yami Muto should have been able to come back from the edge of defeat like that, to win the entire thing!

 _At least,_ Kaiba thought, _A Muto had the grace to win it. I think I'd have to kill someone if the mutt had won it._

The problem was that even if his Tactics Division found a way to defeat the Mutos, there was still the problem of the Egyptian Gods, which were only defeatable by each other or an incredible run of sheer dumb luck.

Kaiba made up his mind, sending a memo to Ironhide, about something unrelated, and speaking to Mokuba before he left, he was going to make a courtesy call to one of the men he never wanted to see again, but had to deal with on as a business partner.

Three days after the tournament, Kaiba took his Blue Eyes White Dragon jet to see Maximillian Pegasus.


	2. That's All Folks

"Yugi, Yami, go and grab some more stock from the store room."

The Muto 'twins' rushed into the stock room, and came out with fresh boxes of almost every Duel Monsters set currently in print.

"Yami, toss me a box of Spellcaster's Secrets!"

The box in question slid across the counter from the hands of Yami Muto to the 'twins' best friend, Joey Wheeler, who opened it quickly, and took the money from the customer just as fast.

Once the final customer had been served, Solomon Muto, Yugi's Grandpa, sighed in relief as he looked at the clock, five past five, gone closing time. He sent his grandsons and their best friend upstairs, while he locked up.

The teens trudged upstairs and Yugi and Yami crashed out on the sofa, while Joey opted for his usual spot after finishing, the fridge in the Muto's kitchen. "I know tournament season is nearly here, but that was ridiculous!" Yugi complained as Joey came back in with four glasses of apple juice, closely followed by Mahado and Boh.

"I know, when was the last time it took all of us to clear the days' customers?" Yami asked.

"Ummm," The golden blonde thought as he set the glasses down, "The summer of the first year at Hogwarts."

"Philosopher's Stone year." Yugi nodded, "I've heard that Kaiba's got a huge tournament on, for lower ranked Duellists, in a couple of weeks time."

"But that means it's going to be manic for weeks!" Joey suddenly realised what that meant, and his grimace made Yami laugh, "It's not funny! I bet Rich-Boy planned this somehow."

"How?" Yugi laughed, "Besides, don't complain, the more money we take, the better the wages Grandpa can afford to pay you." Joey gave his friend an odd look, but was disrupted from saying anything else, as the phone went off.

Yugi leapt off the sofa and entered the kitchen to pick up the phone.

Joey turned to Yami, a serious look on his face, "Has it gotten that bad?"

Yami frowned, "The money is tight, but we can manage if it keeps up like this for another week." Yami sighed, "I tried to get Grandpa to take the prize money, but he's making me keep it for Hogwarts supplies."

"Why's it so bad?"

"The rent on the shop's gone up," Yami sighed, "The Tournament Season's just kicked off…" Yami went into a whole list of reasons, some of which Joey had known and others he hadn't.

"I can go without pay." Joey said, "I mean I've nearly got enough money for supplies if you include the money I got from that mini tournament last week."

"Speak to Grandpa." Yami sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes as his head rested on the back, "He'd know what was best."

Yugi wandered in and joined his yami in slumping on the sofa.

"What was the call?"

"Ombre, apparently Kari's bogged down at work and Ombre wondered if she and Shadowfae could come over. I said it was alright."

"I'm not surprised Kari's bogged down, she's trying to catch up with nine months of work." Yami snorted as Yugi curled up and leant back on the corner piece. "And Ombre knows she's always welcome, why did she ask?"

Yugi shrugged, and then remembered Yami's eyes were closed, "I don't know."

"I'm surprised Kari and Kaiba took the time off to compete." Joey said, "I just hope Kari remembers its Sunday tomorrow." Joey said as Mahado let Tobias in the window and Boh leapt up onto Yugi's lap.

"Why wouldn't she?" Yugi asked, frowning as he looked over at the irritated blonde, while petting the Kuriboh.

"She's worked through three weekends since she got back, Ombre's been over here or at Ryou's since we got back, plus she's nearly missed four dates!" Joey growled, "I don't care how much work they've got to catch up on, Kaiba has to give my girlfriend some time off at some point."

* * *

Kari grinned.

After four weeks of constant slog, she'd done it.

She had finished the pile of work that had built up over the nine months she'd been at Hogwarts.

"Sorry Mana." Kari apologised to her Duel Monster partner, who'd come into work with her, "I'll let some light in now I'm done."

Kari got up and stretched, her hand touching the lump that was her silver wand, hidden in the pocket she'd sewn into the inside of her jacket and then moving, without thinking to the gold chain that the Millennium Orb now rested on, which was sparkling in what little light made it through the blinds.

She pulled them, letting the bright summer sun through her window wall and sighed in pleasure at the view. One of the many reasons she came to work was this view.

That was one of the disadvantages of doing computer work; she had to shut the gorgeous Japanese Summer out.

She looked at the clock, six forty nine in the afternoon.

She'd finished earlier then she thought she would, after phoning Ombre at five…

She felt guilty now.

"You have mail."

Kari frowned, she wasn't expecting an e-mail… if this was the tactics department again, she was going to hurt someone…

It was from Seto.

**To: Ironhide Kari**

**From: Kaiba Seto**

**Message: Mokuba badgered me into e-mailing you about this.**

**There is an Egyptian Exhibit on at the Domino Museum.**

**There are rumours that that Ishtar woman had some hand in getting the stuff brought over.**

**Make sure Ombre goes, just in case.**

**Kaiba Seto**

Kari could easily read between the lines.

"Mokuba badgered me into (insert item here)" normally meant that Seto wanted to tell her, or ask her something but didn't actually want to tell her or ask her. But she didn't understand why she had to make sure Ombre went to that particular Egyptian Exhibit, just in case.

Either Seto knew something she didn't or he felt guilty because he'd heard their talk of going to Egypt and actually felt sorry that he'd stopped them.

No. Seto was still subscribing to the magic is real, the Millennium Items are real but I'm not some reincarnated Priest from the past, no matter how much you and the Muto gang believe it.

Wait, Seto?

Kaiba, Kaiba, Kaiba, Kaiba.

She wasn't thought of as his friend, so she couldn't call him by his first name.

Even though she thought of him as one of their group, after the events of their second year at Hogwarts.

But still, it was good of him to let her know.

She wondered if she could talk Joey into going there tomorrow, with her and Ombre and then go out on their date afterwards.

If she was right about Se…Kaiba's tournament causing a mad rush, Joey would be at the shop, she flipped open her mobile, then looked at the clock again.

Sod it.

She could get started on the work she'd been given this morning on Monday. None of it was urgent.

"Mana, shall we go see the guys?" Kari asked the Dark Magician Girl who grinned and nodded.

 _That would be great!_ Mana told her with a grin.

"Give me a second then."

She popped into the lab to tell her workers that if they needed her she'd check her e-mails tonight and tomorrow night and she'd be back in on Monday and then grabbed her backpack, shoving her laptop inside, before shooting down to the front exit, having sold her car last Summer, because she didn't need it and the MOT was killing her, not literally she'd had to tell Ombre.

If she ran, she'd make it to the Kame Game Shop in twenty minutes.

She slipped off her work shoes and slipped into her trainers, roughly shoving her shoes into her backpack and shoving it on.

"Think we can make it in fifteen?"

 _No harm in trying._ Mana replied, delighted her partner was in such a good mood after the day she'd had.

" _Ombre, I'm on my way to the Game Shop, can you meet me there?"_

' _I'm already there.'_ Ombre's reply was faint, but it wasn't strained, the distance was just a little too far for the link to be loud. _'Is everything alright?'_

" _Yeap, but I've got something to ask you and Joey."_

' _See you in twenty then?'_

" _Hoping to make it in fifteen."_

' _Good luck.'_

" _Haha."_ Kari laughed sarcastically, and then she broke into a jog that turned into a run as she warmed up as Mana followed.

* * *

Kaiba was rather disturbed to find Pegasus had been expecting him.

Then again he shouldn't be that surprised, his Blue Eyes White Jet wasn't the most inconspicuous airplane in the world.

"Well, well, Kaiba-boy, back from obscurity I see, and just in time to get trounced in your own tournament again." Pegasus laughed.

"This isn't a social call, Pegasus." Seto growled, pleased to see Kisara glaring at Pegasus. "You have something I want."

"And what would this be? You did hear I retired from the game wherever you've been hiding yourself, right?" Pegasus didn't seem to care that he had a Blue Eyes White Dragon gunning for him.

"Yeah, and Yami Muto isn't a self righteous…"

Pegasus looked amused, "Is that a hint of jealousy I hear from you Kaiba-boy?"

"As if." Kaiba growled, after the events of Duellist Kingdom he wanted to stay as far away from this freak as possible, "I came about the Egyptian God Cards."

"And what gives you the idea I can help you with those?"

"Because you would never have let them leave your grimy hands if you didn't have someway of beating them."

"Oh, so it is jealousy of the Yugi-boys." Pegasus continued to look amused, "That battle between Slipher and Obelisk was rather impressive wasn't it?"

"Stop stalling, do you have something or not?"

"I do, but I don't feel like giving it to you, Kaiba-boy." Pegasus took a sip of his red wine spritzer.

"What?" Kaiba growled.

"I don't think you deserve them." Pegasus smirked, "After all, Yugi and Yami Muto have been handing you defeat after defeat for what, going on six years now? Why should I help you?"

"Because…" Kaiba's hand went inside his coat and he drew from the top of his deck, knowing without question which cards they were, "If you'll put up the cards I need to defeat the Muto's Gods, I'll wager these."

All three Blue Eyes White Dragons were in his hand.

He could feel Kisara's disgust at him and tried not to flinch from it in front of Pegasus.

"You'd wager all three of your precious Blue Eyes White Dragons for a chance to trounce the Yugi-boys? My, my, you are desperate, especially if you'd run the risk of angering your girl."

Kaiba looked confused then looked up at Kisara.

"Well, if you want them so badly, I suppose I can be persuaded, Kaiba-boy, it's time to duel."

* * *

"So what did you want to ask?" Joey asked.

"There's an Egyptian Exhibit on at the museum and…" Kari looked at Ombre, "It's rumoured that it was arranged by that Ishtar woman you told us about."

"I'll go." Joey said amicably, "You've been so busy, I'll go anywhere as long as we actually get our date."

"We can go elsewhere afterwards but…"

"I'd like to go." Ombre nodded.

"We'll go on Monday on our day off." Yami said, "Or I will at least."

"Sundays are always insane in store." Yugi added, "I'll come with you on Monday, Yami, maybe we can find something."

Yami just nodded as Mana and Mahado went into the kitchen for something.

"Also, I have something to admit to you boys, before the next tournament."

"What's that?" Yugi asked, violet eyes showing more then his body language just how tired he was.

"I'm not going to be Duelling competitively anymore."

Three voices, all started talking at once.

Kari and Ombre looked at each other as the two Magicians came back, wondering what all the noise was.

"Calm down and I'll explain." Kari sighed.

* * *

It's not quite up to your standards Kaiba-boy, in fact did I hear rumours about the DD2?" Pegasus asked as he got a pile of cards and his deck out of a briefcase and left the pile and the briefcase on a table and walked over to his side of the Duelling Arena.

"That's company business and quite unfounded. The Duel Disk as it stands at the moment is perfectly capable of receiving every download and running every card. There is currently no working plans for the DD2." Kaiba growled, "But that isn't related to the here and now. I'll use your outdated system, since you can't cheat using magic anymore."

"What's this? Kaiba-boy finally believes?" Pegasus looked shocked.

"Just get on with it, Pegasus!" Kaiba snapped, as Kisara flew in and settled on his side of the Duelling Arena.

"Fine, I'll start things off." Pegasus said, drawing. "Oh dear, I'm afraid you're about to enter into a world of pain, Kaiba-boy, a world of chaos, a world of absolute mayhem…" Pegasus's life points dropped from 4000 to 3000 and Kaiba frowned slightly, "That's right. A world of Toons!"

With that he played his one of a kind Toon World card. The magical book appeared on the field.

Kaiba snorted, "Don't tell me you're actually still using that idiotic Toon World Card!" Pegasus looked insulted, "Well, this is going to be even easier then I thought!"

"I summon Toon Gemini Elf, in attack mode!" Pegasus sounded annoyed. The elves giggled as they arrived on the field. "And this for later. It's your turn Kaiba-boy."

Seto drew and examined his hand. "I summon X Head Cannon!" The yellow cannon monster appeared on the field. "Also I'll throw two cards face down for later." Two magic and trap slots lit up.

"Oh, I'm so scared Kaiba," Pegasus said with so much sarcasm he could have made the Weasley Twins wince, "Two cards face down? Oh mercy me, what will I do?" Pegasus got a smug look, "Oh wait, I know." He drew, "Play this. Card of Sanctity!" A bright yellowey green light flickered above both Duellists' heads, "Isn't it pretty? And it allows us each to draw until we both have six cards in our hand." Both drew just one card, "Just what I needed. Now I'll activate the magic card Cost Down which means that…"

"Do you ever shut up?" Kaiba snapped, "I know what it means, you can summon your strongest monsters to the field more easily. Please, who do you take me for, the Mutt?"

"You're not as good as you think you are Kaiba-boy." Pegasus smirked, amused, "I summon the Toon Dark Magician Girl!"

She appeared out of the book and Kaiba's first thought was _I wonder if Kari and Mana would squeal at the chibi or get insulted by a toon version?_ Then he shook his head, it didn't matter and he was getting distracted.

"But I won't be using her just yet." Pegasus said, still smug, "First I attack with, the Gemini Elves, and I think I'll have them target…" Kaiba growled as they appeared behind him, "You!"

The twins kicked Kaiba in the back and knocked him forward, his life points fell to 2100 as Pegasus grinned and said, "Cartoons are so violent these days." Kaiba looked up at him, "But we're not through yet. My elves have another ability!"

Kaiba knew what it was, and the elves stole a card from his hand, his Monster Reborn.

"Aren't my Toons simply magnificent Kaiba-boy?"

"I should have just tried to get Ironhide to tell me how she beats the Mutos." Kaiba growled under his breath.

"Oh stop complaining, think of it this way, at least it's my Toons stopping your quest to the top and not the Yugi-boys for the umpteenth time!" Pegasus threw his arms wide, "Now, lets get on with it shall we? Oh Toon Dark Magician Girl, your turn!"

She started flying at Kaiba who smirked, "You must really be out of practise Pegasus, because you forgot all about my face down cards and that's going to cost you…" Kaiba flipped one of his cards.

"Oh." Pegasus flinched.

"Huh?" Toon Dark Magician Girl asked, stopping in the middle of the field.

"Attack Guidance Armour!" Kaiba smirked, "Which acts like a magnet, redirecting your attack right back at you!"

"No! You wouldn't!" Pegasus looked furious.

"Oh yes, I would. And I will!" Kaiba glared back, "Guidance Armour attaches to your Toon Gemini Elves!"

The elves tried to escape, but couldn't get away.

The Toon Dark Magician Girl looked from Kaiba to the armour, to Kaiba, to the armour.

The armour's eyes lit up.

The Toon Dark Magician Girl slammed her staff down on the elves heads.

 _Mana wouldn't be that easily fooled._ Kaiba found himself thinking, then wondered what was going on with his head. He never got distracted during duels.

 _Keep your mind on the match, Seto._ Kisara scolded.

"But they were just innocent Toons!" Pegasus practically snarled, losing his cool completely as his life points dropped to 2900. "You'll pay for that!"

"I activate the magic card Monster Reborn to bring them back!" The toons reappeared on the field, "And activate Ultimate Offering!"

"Don't you dare explain it to me Pegasus, just make your move already!" Kaiba snapped.

"Fine, I offer my Toon Gemini Elves and five hundred life points, Kaiba-boy, to introduce, the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!"

Kisara snarled at the her toon counterpart and Kaiba growled.

"Your girl doesn't seem too happy to see her counter part in Toon World." Pegasus smirked.

"I'm not surprised, nothing can match Kisara's grace and beauty, especially not a stupid looking fake like that." Kaiba snapped.

"Well at least the next Toon isn't one of your monsters, ladies and gentlemen, the Toon Summoned Skull!"

_Blue Eyes is mine, Dark Magician Girl is Kari's and Summoned Skull is Muto's, please doesn't this hack have any monsters of his own?_

"Sure I'll have to give up another 500 life points," They dropped to 1900, "But you know what they say, Kaiba-boy, you have to spend life points to take life points." Pegasus smirked, "Of course you'd know all about that, the Yugi-boys have been taking your life points for almost six years. Oh, I'm sorry to keep bringing that up."

 _Yeah right._ Kaiba thought. _If he's sorry, the mutt is a better Duellist then me._

"I activate the magic card Dark Core, discarding one card from my hand to remove one monster from the field!"

"I see. Well then, I'm sorry Blue Eyes Toon Dragon, I guess this is goodbye."

"Not quite Pegasus, you're not getting off that easily. Because I'm discarding Y Dragon Head from my hand to remove X Head Cannon from the game."

"But X Head Cannon is your own monster!"

"I also play Soul Release, removing one more monster from the game and I'm using it on my Y Dragon Head."

"Why are you removing your own monsters?" Pegasus demanded.

 _Well played Partner._ Kisara said as Kaiba summoned Z Metal Tank.

"That makes no sense…unless!" Pegasus's eyes widened…

"Unless I still have one more card to play, Pegasus, and it so happens I do! Activate Return from the Different Dimention!"

Pegasus watched as the card appeared on the field.

"It's well worth half my life points to bring back all my monsters, a nice trick to know if you want to summon more then one monster in a turn."

Pegasus took a half step back, gawking at the monsters.

"And, as you're well aware, these aren't just any monsters, Pegasus, they combine!" The three machine monsters joined together, "Together they form the XYZ Dragon Cannon!"

Kaiba glared at Pegasus, "Now I have all the fire power I need to blast any card I want out of the duel! If you still say you're going to win, it's time to change your tune! Go! Destroy Toon World!"

"NO!" Pegasus yelled.

"Use Cannon Firestorm!" Pegasus's yelling didn't help as the Dragon Cannon fired, blasting Toon World and all the monsters inside, finally knocking Pegasus backwards and into the ground.

"That's all folks." Kaiba said, as Pegasus's life points hit zero. "Now, let's see what you've got to beat the Egyptian Gods." Kaiba looked through the card pile Pegasus had put down by his briefcase. "Looks like you had two cards up your sleeve!"

"What do you mean two cards?" Pegasus demanded, "Kaiba, there was only one!"

"Yeah right, you snake."

Kaiba left the room, the mansion and Pegasus's fantasy island, to return to Kaiba Corp and make plans.


	3. From the Light

It was Monday morning and Yugi and Yami were playing their least favourite game of avoid the press and the insane Duellists long enough to get to somewhere else.

Normally they could rely on Joey to cause a distraction long enough for them to get away, but with Joey and Ombre working and Kari in work, they were having to play the slightly modified version which normally involved Yugi going one way, Yami the other and confusing the hell out of the Duellists trying to follow them.

Using this version of the game, it took them two hours to take the thirty minute walk to the Museum.

Luckily most Duellists seemed to avoid the Museum like the plague so once they were inside it was safe.

"How many caught you?" Yami asked as Yugi arrived, five minutes after he did.

"Two members of press, four Duellists and a pack of fan girls." Yugi sighed, "You?"

"One member of the press, two Duellists and three fan girls, I tend to notice them faster then you do so I can get before they corner me." Yami replied.

The two headed straight for the back rooms, where the Egyptian Exhibit was and where Joey had mentioned they might find something interesting.

The place was deserted, a typically quiet museum on a work day, and Yugi and Yami found themselves strolling along to the exhibit instead of rushing.

Yami's calm attitude surprised Yugi, who had thought that if there was any possible link to his past, which there had to be for Isuzu to send it here, Yami would have been more excited.

They entered and Yami looked around, walking over to the sarcophagus first, confusion clouding his face as he read the sign, "The Tomb of Anubis, Egyptian Lord of the Dead."

Yugi watched Yami carefully, "What's wrong?"

"I think I should know him."

"Your memories coming back?"

"Kind of…" Yami sighed, "It's more like a feeling. I kind of recognise that dagger, and…" Yami shook his head, "It's frustrating."

Yugi smiled slightly, and wandered over to another room, where there were many carved and painted stones, all of which in Ancient Egyptian and while Yugi was taking lessons from Kari in it, he was not fluent yet.

Something caught his eyes and he froze, "Y…Yami!"

"What's wrong?" Yami was in like a shot, taking in the scene then staring at the object in the case. It was a reverse version of their Millennium Puzzle, in a light blue glassy stone material and the Millennium Symbol in gold, the eye's centre a red gem of some kind.

"It's called the Pyramid of Light." Yugi read off the sign as Yami examined the triangular tablet with the three Gods around the red gemmed eye. "It says it belonged to an evil sorcerer who tried to bring about the end of the world."

"Guess he failed." Yami snorted.

"Apparently legends say a brave Pharaoh destroyed him using the Mystical Dagger of Fate, the same Pharaoh who is said to have possessed…" Yugi trailed off.

Yami quickly read the end, "Our Millennium Puzzle."

"You must have fought with that man five thousand years ago." Yugi said.

"There's still so much I don't know…" Yami shook his head in annoyance.

Yugi went back over to the sarcophagus and tried to translate the Egyptian writing on it, "The… eye… that… sees…" Yugi read slowly.

Yami smiled slightly and walked over, knowing Yugi was trying but really needed more practise and a little more time with his tutor. The Pharaoh himself looked at the sarcophagus and smiled ruefully, "It says, "The eye that sees what's yet to come, it's vision shall be fulfilled, unless blinded by events predetermined, thus Light and Shadows both be killed."

"Nice." Yugi sighed, then froze as a bright light grew and engulfed them.

* * *

Yugi opened his eyes.

He was stood, in open space, with the Pyramid of Light and the Millennium Puzzle high above him in the sky, but super sized.

He looked over to where two people were stood, Yami was duelling Kaiba, then Yami cried out in pain and fell to his hands and knees and Kaiba laughed.

Then a human with a jackal's head grabbed Kaiba…

"From the light comes the dark!"

* * *

Kari was fast asleep on her sofa bed in her office, when Kaiba came slamming in unexpectedly at half past five o'clock Monday Morning. She'd come in because someone had broken into her office at four this morning and stolen some data on the DD2s and had fallen asleep while waiting for security to come back. Obviously they hadn't bothered… Kaiba had been away for a few days to speak to someone and Kari growled at him as she come round. "Ironhide."

"Go 'way!" She grunted at him, completely forgetting she wasn't at home or in the dorm and he wasn't Ombre waking her up for work, or Hermione waking her up for school, because she was actually concerning herself with burying her head in her pillow.

"Ironhide!"

 _Partner, Kaiba wants you up for some reason._ Mana tried, but Kari had already sat up straight at Kaiba's ordering tone, and though she was about eighty percent asleep she gave him her best, I'm-awake-really look.

"Yugi and Yami Muto are coming to the Duel Dome later."

"And?" Kari asked, staring at him blankly.

"For a Tag Team Duel."

"Good luck." Kari replied, wondering what Kaiba was on about, and hoping he'd let her go back to sleep.

"Kari, you're going to be my Partner."

Kari stared at him, "You want me to be your partner against **_Yami and Yugi_**?" She asked incredulously, "I can't defeat Ra, Slipher and Obelisk any easier then you can."

"I can defeat the Gods easily, I just need a Tag Battle Partner." Kari frowned, she could sense something wrong with Seto, and she didn't like his icy tones. He hadn't been out and out cold towards her for almost three years, why now? "I'll give you a bonus towards Hogwarts Books."

"Seto, I personally think that going against those two is equivalent to… to a Brownie going against a Hungarian Horntail, even without the Gods, they are almost impossible to defeat." Kari said, "And no amount of Galleons towards Hogwarts supplies can convince me otherwise." Mana agreed with her.

"If you don't partner with me…"

"You'll what?" Kari asked more scornfully then she would have if she'd've been fully awake, "If you fire me, half the department will walk," She sighed, "I'll team up with you Seto, but I am **_NOT_** taking the fall when we lose."

"We won't lose." Kaiba replied, "Meet me outside the Main Entrance at four."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba, Sir." Kari replied. The moment Kaiba had left, she fell asleep again, but this time her dreams were filled with danger and trouble. She woke abruptly at six thirty before calling her PA in and finally realising what she'd agreed to… She logged on after getting her day's schedule, decided that nothing on it was more important then rewriting the data that had been stolen and sent a message to Seto while wondering who was going to get the duty of telling him that the data was gone.

She wasn't doing it. No way.

She liked living too much.

**To: Kaiba Seto**

**From: Ironhide Kari**

**Message: Have you actually asked Yugi and Yami if they're willing to duel us?**

**Kari.**

-

**To: Ironhide Kari**

**From: Kaiba Seto**

**Message: I sent them a memo.**

**Kaiba Seto.**

-

**To: Kaiba Seto**

**From: Ironhide Kari**

**Message: Mr Kaiba, sir, they don't work for you.**

**Kari.**

-

**To: Ironhide Kari**

**From: Kaiba Seto**

**Message: They have been informed and will be picked up from the Domino Museum at three, be ready to duel by then.**

**Kaiba Seto.**

Kari sighed and settled down to the day's work, if she could get it done by three then she'd be alright.

She picked up her mobile phone and it rang just twice before it got picked up, "Ombre? Hi. You know. Tried the Kame Game Shop first… should have known. I think there's something wrong with Se…Kaiba. I know. I'll be careful. I'll be home after the Duel. Ok, see you later, bye…"

Kari sighed and stared at her laptop, glaring at the work that now had to be redone, "Back to work then…"

* * *

Yugi and Yami sighed as they waited just inside the Museum doors for the limo to pull up. They couldn't wait outside since the psycho Duellists hadn't left Domino yet but Yami wasn't sure this duel was such a good idea after the incident earlier. They both had a bad feeling about it.

A limo pulled up almost directly outside the museum, Mokuba was inside. "I was just on my way to pick you two up."

"Is Kaiba alright?" Yugi asked, concerned, remembering their dream/vision from earlier.

"I don't know. He hasn't been himself since he got back from his meeting with Pegasus, and Kari's worried about him."

"Well, let's get our Duel Disks and see for ourselves." Yami said, Yugi and Mokuba nodded and they piled into the limo.

They were quiet on the way, both to the Game Shop and to the Duel Dome.

Mokuba split up with them at the lifts, "Kari and my brother are waiting for you on

the top floor."

The 'twins' nodded and entered the lift.

Only Yugi caught Mokuba's murmured, "Good luck, guys."

Kari had slipped into something she felt a little more comfortable duelling in before meeting Seto out the front of Kaiba Corp.

Duel Disk on one arm and her bag with her laptop and deck over the over shoulder, she raced down from her office, locking her door on the way out, and getting there with half a minute to spare.

"Mr Kaiba, sir…?" Kari asked, worried at the slightly sadistic smile on her boss's face. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, just get in the car." Kaiba said as Kisara flew overhead.

Kari looked then bit her lip, "Not until you tell me what you did to Yugi's Grandpa's Blue Eyes White Dragon."

"Ironhide!" Kaiba snapped, causing Mana, who'd followed her down from the office, to flinch.

"You're not acting like yourself and I'm not going anywhere with someone who I can't trust is who I think they are." Kari glared, "Did you forget about Polyjuice Potion?" She asked quietly.

"Fine, I ripped it in half, happy?"

Kari sighed and got into the limo, with Seto and Mana, which sped off at a stupidly fast rate of knots, reaching the Duel Dome in ten minutes.

"Seto, what's gotten into your driver?" Kari gasped as the screeched to a halt.

"Just get out." Seto replied.

Kari felt cold, She didn't know what to make of Seto's icy attitude or the strange magic she felt rolling off of him, but it was defiantly Seto who'd shared a car ride with her…

Kari scrambled out of the limo and followed her boss up to the Duelling Arena of the Duel Dome, Mana and Kisara following them both.

Yugi and Yami arrived just two minutes later, with Mahado and Boh, and they stood face to face, monsters at their right hand side and slightly behind them.

"I hope you brought the Gods, because otherwise this won't be any fun at all." Kaiba smirked at them as Kisara glared at Mahado.

" _Mana,"_ Kari called to her Duel Monster partner, " _Please get Mahado to tell Yami that something is wrong with Seto."_

The relay of thoughts passed between the Duel Monsters and Yami's eyes flickered from Kaiba to Kari then back again as Mahado passed on the message.

' _Tell her we can see that, thank you …'_ Yami replied.

"Yami…" Yugi whispered, passing Yami a card, "I think you'd better have him back."

Yami looked quickly, "Slipher?"

"Something's wrong with Kaiba and…"

"Are you going to talk or Duel?"

"This duel isn't a good idea." Yugi said, looking at Kaiba.

"You're just scared that I might have finally come up with a way to defeat you."

"Kaiba stop and think for second, there's the presence of something far more dangerous then you can imagine!" Yami growled, finally sensing what was coming from Kaiba.

"Spare me the fairy tales."

"Seto, he's right." Kari said, watching her boss carefully.

"I've heard enough." Seto snapped, "If you three think you sense something dangerous then you're right, because it's me and my deck and in this match you Mutos are about to lose big time." Seto's head went up to the holoprojector room, which was moving, "Mokuba, seal all the exits!"

"If you say so…" _If Yami, Yugi and Kari think this duel is a bad idea, why won't Seto listen?_ Mokuba shut off all the exits.

"Now, what do you say we get down to business already?" Kaiba snapped.

"Kaiba stop thinking about yourself for once and listen to what we're telling you!" Yami growled.

"You're in no position to be making demands, so shut up and duel." Yugi and Kari looked at each other and then all four Duellists shuffled their decks and activated their Duel Disks. "Tag Team Duel, the Duel continues until all of a team's life points are gone." Kaiba growled. "And may the best Duellists win."

"Who moves first?" Yugi asked.

"Me, Yami, Kari, you." Kaiba said.

All four Duellists nodded, "Let's Duel!"

Kaiba drew.

"I summon my Familiar Knight in defence mode, try to get past him."

"Very well, I shall." Yami drew, "I play Queen's Knight," She appeared on the field, "And now, say goodbye to your monster." Yami directed it to attack and the Familiar Knight blew up.

"By destroying your knight, I've activated its special ability, which allows you to play a new beast in its place."

"And you're being so helpful, because why?" Kaiba asked as he summoned Rare Metal Dragon, which had 2400 attack points.

"Because not only does it allow you to get another monster on the field, it helps me and my partner too." Yami grinned, "Allowing me to summon King's Knight, and through their special ability, Jack's Knight."

Kari growled, but she too was allowed to summon and summoned her Skilled Dark Magician and Yugi summoned Obnoxious Celtic Guardian.

"I play one card face down and it's Kari's turn."

"I sacrifice my Skilled Dark Magician for my Dark Magician Girl!" Mana was practically cheering, "And play a card face down, Yugi, it's your move."

"I equip my Obnoxious Celtic Guard with Luster Sword, raising his attack to 1900 and play two cards face down." Yugi looked at Kaiba, who took that as an end turn and drew.

"Looks like your luck ran out, I'll keep this card face down on the field until the time is right, right for me that is, and then nothing in your deck will make a difference. It's your move Yami."

Yami went to draw and Yugi sensed the energy run through his yami and Kari couldn't help but notice his reaction. "Oh no…"

"An Egyptian God." Yugi breathed, grinning. Boh was bouncy but Mahado didn't look happy.

Yami nodded, "I sacrifice my three Knights to bring forth my Ultimate Creature!"

Kari took a half step back, knowing all too well what was coming.

"Behold, the Egyptian God Card; Slipher the Sky Dragon!"

Considering the indoor thunderstorm that started up as Yami announced it, Kari decided either Seto had gone crazy or he had a plan as he smirked up at the clouds.

The huge red dragon arrived and curled around Yami and Yugi, glaring at those who dared challenge his masters.

"Your monsters are helpless against the divine power of Slipher," Yami growled, "Attack Kaiba's Rare Metal Dragon!"

It exploded and Kaiba's life points dropped to 3400 as Seto threw up an arm to shield himself.

"Had enough?" Yami growled.

"No." Kaiba growled, "If your turn is over, its Ironhide's move."

"Kari." Yami nodded to her.

Kari blanched, what was she supposed to do against a God?

"Two cards face down, it's your move Yugi."

"One card, defence mode, back to you Kaiba."

"Not only am I not afraid of your God card, Yami, but I'm going to force you to summon all three at once!"

Yugi looked surprised, and Yami gave Kaiba a look that Kari couldn't quite read.

"Thanks to my Obligatory Summon Magic Card, you have to bring out every Monster in your deck, that falls into the same category as the one on the field."

"S…Kaiba?" Kari asked. It was official, Seto was insane. Why the hell would he want Yami to summon the other two Divine creatures in his deck? No matter how strong their decks were, there was no way they could take on all three Gods… Seto didn't look at her.

"Fine." Yami said firmly, though looking a little confused, "I play two more Egyptian God Cards. Obelisk the Tormentor, and the Winged Dragon of Ra."

Kari bit her bottom lip as Yami grunted as the energy of the Gods shot off the Duel Disk, and solidified into the Gods and Yugi, Kaiba and Kari braced themselves against the ground shaking that almost always accompanied their holographic arrival.

All the monsters turned towards Yami, eyes wide as the Gods took form.

For a split second Kari wondered why that almost never happened when the Gods were summoned with Wand Magic, then she was staring at the three Gods and her mind was full of two words, repeated over and over again… "Oh shit."

"You've allowed me to assemble the three strongest and most feared creatures in Duel Monsters, Kaiba. A foolish mistake."

Kari's mouth dropped open as Seto started to laugh.

"It's no mistake." Seto claimed, "My entire strategy was to draw out your three Egyptian God Cards, so I can be the first Duellist to crush all of them at once."

"Huh?" Kari's jaw would have hit the floor, it wasn't possible… was it?

"Just how do you intend to do that?" Yami asked, disbelievingly.

"You're about to find out right now." Seto smirked, "Reveal Trap Card. Pyramid of Light!"

Kari's eyes widened, she'd thought that was an artefact at the Museum, in the exhibit she'd taken Ombre and Joey to see yesterday.

She could see Yami and Yugi's faces and realised that they recognised the name too… she just wondered if they could sense what she was sensing.

This wasn't good.

"Now, pyramid, activate!"

A bright blue light shot up from the card, and a blue blot of energy hit the ground, splitting into four and creating a pyramid shape.

The Duellist's attention was grabbed by the Egyptian Gods' cries of pain… the Gods… in pain? What the hell was going on?

"Looks like your so-called unstoppable monsters, have been stopped." Seto was still smirking as the pyramid closed, with sides of blue energy penning them in.

"Impossible." Yugi gasped, still staring at the Gods, who were now stuck on the outside of the Pyramid.

"See for yourself."

Obelisk was the first to try to reach inside, and was forced back by blue lightening, which then consumed Slipher and Ra.

"Your monsters are useless."

"But how?" Yami asked, worried and confused.

The three gods vanished from the playing field, in an explosion… the Pyramid had destroyed them… or removed them from play…

Kari froze as her mind tried to translate the Ancient Egyptian being spoken by some unknown person.

Yugi's cry of pain caught her and Yami's attention; he was bent over slightly, his hands clutched to his chest, golden lightening playing over him. His Duel Disk had shut down.

"Yugi?" Yami asked, rushing over.

The golden energy surrounded Yugi, and Yami had to catch him as he fell unconscious and the energy drained into or was absorbed by the Millennium Puzzle.

"Yugi!" The Ancient Egyptian was still going, but Kari couldn't understand more then a few words, it was Palace language, Ombre obviously had never known it…

"Yugi… wake up…" Yami shook him.

Kari went to rush over but was stopped by Seto's look. She glared back at him, deactivated and dropped her Duel Disk, and rushed over. "Yugi?" She asked, putting her hand on the Puzzle, then her head went fuzzy, and that was the last thing she knew.

Mahado caught her as she fell and Mana rushed over to check her partner over.

She glared at Kaiba, giving him the dirtiest look she could muster and Kisara didn't do anything but look back.

"Yugi, where are you?" Yami asked, trying to sense his hikari inside the Millennium Item, "Kaiba, do you have any idea what you've just done?" Yami snarled, setting Yugi down and turning away from the Duel Monsters and the two hikaris to death-glare at Kaiba.

Seto looked shocked for a moment, then something descended on him, a cold mist that blocked out any concern for anyone other them himself, he laughed icily, "Well, lets see, I think I've just beaten you."

Yami stared at him, how… Yami looked back to Yugi and Kari, then tried to reach his hikari's mind… it wasn't there, not in his soul room, not even around Yami's or somewhere near there inside the Puzzle… He couldn't sense his hikari's mind, or soul… but… he had to be alright, he just had to be…


	4. An English Intermission

Hermione Granger was frustrated.

Unknown to her friends at Hogwarts, Hermione had taken it onto herself to research everything she could in the magical world to try to help Yami and Ombre with their problem.

She thought she'd found something on Ombre's people in a book in the Muggle Library, the one just down the road from her that she practically lived in during the Summer Holidays, but then that turbaned man, Shadi, he'd said his name was, had taken it from her, saying that the Pharaoh would find out in due time.

Hermione had tried to reason with him, saying that it wasn't fair for Yami and Ombre to be deprived of anything that related to them and that Yami was owed his memories for everything he'd done to protect the world.

But Shadi had merely pulled out a Millennium Item, the Millennium Key he'd said, and entered her mind without her permission.

She had somehow followed him to her Soul Room, where Shadi had examined her mind and soul.

Hermione had looked around her Soul Room, unsurprised by the fact that it was an organised library with a sofa bed in the corner, but hadn't really taken much in as she'd watched the Egyptian judge her soul.

She'd heard the stories but had never expected to have the man judging her soul against the feather of truth, never expected for it to be her soul at risk of being fed to Amut.

Hermione had watched in fear as the man's second Millennium Item appeared as if from nowhere.

Shadi had turned to her, Millennium Items raised.

Then his face had taken on a look of surprise for a millisecond, as if he'd been expecting something else to happen.

"You pass." He merely said and vanished from her room.

Hermione had enough time to take one last look at the room and then she felt herself wake up.

"You passed the trial of the Millennium Scales. I was wrong about you. You seek knowledge for the sake of helping the Pharaoh and the Princess, not to claim the power for yourself." Shadi said, eyeing up the teen, "But you cannot reveal anything to them yet."

He had vanished with the book.

Hermione still hadn't worked out how he'd known what she was researching, or why he was watching her when he should have been keeping an eye out for trouble for the Millennium Item Wielders, but… she was still annoyed at him for taking her book.

The Millennium Items hadn't been in any books she'd read so far, they weren't mentioned in passing, they weren't mentioned in any books on Egypt's ancient history, she'd even looked up ancient artefacts from all over the world but there was nothing.

It was like someone or something wanted all mention of the Shadows to vanish from history.

Had someone known Yami and Ombre would wake up with questions and deliberately kept the answers locked so tightly away that the world couldn't find them so that the yamis couldn't get to them?

Hermione was currently halfway through the pile of books she'd picked up from the library and was finding nothing that was half as helpful as the book Shadi had taken from her.

She wondered if she should send a note to Kari and Ombre, mentioning the man's visit, but decided against it, not wanting to worry them, and unable to think of a reason why Shadi would visit if Hermione wasn't looking up things relating to the yamis.

Hermione growled and picked up the book she was reading, _Ancient Cultures and the Myths Surrounding Them._

The book referred to magic as a myth and only went back a thousand years, which was barely anything if you weighed it up against the amount of time Yami and Ombre had been in their items.

Hermione chucked the book across the room in frustration, then went and retrieved it.

There was no point in getting mad at the books, when in reality, she was just lonely and missing her friends and frustrated at her inability to find anything that could help them.

They'd been sharing letters, sending them by airmail back and forward but Kari wasn't expecting replies from Harry, since airmail wasn't cheap and Kari had forgotten to give him any stamps.

There'd been a letter from Yugi that had come this morning with the results of the tournament they'd been competing in and telling her how they'd been doing.

Japan sounded fascinating, but Hermione was certain that she could never convince her parents to go there for a holiday, especially not to a part of Japan that was only well known because of Battle City.

Her parents were funding her Duel Monsters card buying spree only because learning the game kept her out pf the library.

Hermione had been surprised at just how taken in she'd become by the game from merely watching her friends play and meeting the Duel Monsters that had arrived in the human world last summer during a tournament.

She wasn't any good yet, but the cards in her deck liked her, she'd chosen them for that exact reason. There wasn't much rhyme and reason to her deck, it worked well enough, but she had all sorts of monsters in there, Spellcasters, Warriors, Beasts, a couple of Fiends too, Yugi always managed to get a Kuriboh in his Fiend Barrier booster packs and was always willing to let his friend have one.

Hermione had seen Kuriboh in action too many times not to accept Yugi's offer.

She sighed and closed the useless book, pulling out her deck and shuffling it, drawing the top card and grinning at it.

It was the Flight of Dragons card she'd found in a Sky Sanctuary booster pack, one of the last packs she'd bought. It hadn't appealed to her to start with, but it kind of reminded her of their group of friends, a bunch of children, or hatchlings, flying with a group of adults who in turn were still being led by their leader, who at the moment, Hermione figured was either Yami or Harry.

She shook her head, put down the card and picked up the next book.

Distractions wouldn't get her through this fifteen book pile.

* * *

Ron Weasley was glaring at his School Trunk.

He was trying to sort through his Hogwarts stuff, having finally acquiesced to his Mum's continual nagging.

He hated going through his school trunk, there was always so much stuff that had been screwed up or broken or multiple others things and there was always that thing right at the bottom that leaked all over the place, causing a rainbow of messes as parchment and ink and whatever the hell it was that leaked (why was it always sticky?) all mixed together into a gooey paste at the bottom of his trunk.

Ron froze as he pulled something out of it.

"Yugi's going to kill me." Ron growled as the only Fiend card he owned came loose from the sticky mess and Ron felt the forlorn look it gave him.

Ron shook his head in amusement, he'd clearly been spending too much time with Yugi and Boh if he was imagining the look Boh would give him if he was coated in the sticky mess that currently covered the base of his trunk.

Taking the sticky card downstairs, he passed his brothers Fred and George on their way back up the stairs with identical looks on their faces, the look Ron had learnt to worry about, because there would be an angry Mum on a rampage soon.

Mrs Weasley, however, was downstairs cooking. Whatever the twins were up to, they hadn't done it yet obviously.

"Mum?"

"What's wrong dear?" Mrs Weasley asked, turning around.

"How would I clean a card without damaging it?"

"Card?" She asked with a frown, Ron held up the sticky Kuriboh, "Ah, cardboard, Scorgify is too harsh for a card like that." Mrs Weasley took a closer look, "Isn't that one of those Drool Monsters cards?"

"Duel Monsters Mum." Ron sighed, "Yugi gave me this one, he seems to get a lot of copies of it and it's his favourite, so he gives his friends a copy."

"That's nice of him." Mrs Weasley said, "He's a Muto right? One of the twins with the tricoloured hair?" Ron nodded, "Is Yugi the one with the purple eyes or the red eyes?"

"Yugi's the shorter one with the purple eyes. The one who helped save Ginny." Ron said, "Mum, how would I clean the card?"

"Well, how does he do it?"

"Yugi doesn't get his cards dirty, they live in his deck box which is with him at all times."

"Hmmm." Mrs Weasley looked like she was thinking, "Try this." She pointed her wand at the card and said, "Abluo."

The card got slightly damp, but all the stickiness vanished.

"Thanks Mum." Ron hugged his Mum and raced back upstairs with the damp Kuriboh in hand.

It went under his potions textbook to dry so it didn't curl up at the edges.

Ron shook his head, highly amused, as he turned back to the mess in his trunk, the rest of his rather small card collection were all in the other corners of the trunk, well away from the gunk, typical Yugi, getting into trouble.

Not that he'd proved himself much better since going to Hogwarts, but he didn't get into half as much trouble as Yugi and Harry.

But then Harry was the Boy-Who-Lived, who'd defeated Voldemort when he was a baby and had faced down Voldemort twice and killed a Basilisk, while Yugi was something Ron was still only beginning to understand, but between him and Yami was beginning to be called the Twins-Who-Never-Lose and Ron knew both of them had faced Voldemort and Yugi had helped Harry with the Basilisk.

Yugi, Yami, Joey and the others had had other adventures before they'd come to their school too, but Ron often forgot they weren't the same age as them.

He wasn't sure why they were at Hogwarts other then Professor Dumbledore had invited them, but he was glad they were there and were his friends, because he'd seen what they could be like as enemies and he didn't want them against him.

Ron got the last of his cards out and glared at the gunk at the bottom of his trunk, his Mum had told him this morning that she wouldn't clean it out for him, but there was no way he wanted to clean it out by hand.

Percy, however, was doing something and threatening to throttle any Weasley sibling that interrupted him and the twins weren't old enough.

He growled and went and got some clean soapy water, and a couple of towels, kneeling down next to the trunk and putting his hand right in the gunk.

"Blegh!" He moved his hand quickly, and glared at the sticky stuff. It was gross and smelt like something he'd made in potions class with Harry.

He was jealous of Harry sometimes, he could admit it to himself, though he wouldn't admit around the others, Harry was a powerful wizard and he was stinking rich, at least the Mutos were powerful but poor like him and Kaiba was stinking rich but lacked any sort of personal life at all.

Harry was rich, powerful, had a good group of friends and Harry's advice was even taken by Yami, who'd been a Pharaoh before he'd been sealed in the Puzzle.

Ron was good at magic, but he didn't have a Knut to his name and while his friends were great, his suggestions didn't hold half the weight Harry's did.

But then Ron had an unfair advantage over both Yugi who was a famous Duellist, and Harry who was a famous wizard.

Ron's parents were both alive, and here.

And if he was honest, he'd rather have his family whole and well then have the fame of his friends but have his family either scattered or dead.

He could quite easily understand why, to both Harry and Yugi, their friends were their family.

Ron shook his head and got on with cleaning the bottom of his trunk, the sooner he did it the sooner it was over with and the sooner he could see if the twins wanted to play Quidditch.

* * *

Harry Potter was soaking wet.

His cousin Dudley had taken all of the Duel Monsters cards that his friends had given him and either ripped them up or tried to chuck them in the pond at the park.

Half his cards had been torn to shreds and the other half were ruined by water.

Harry had fished them out but the only two that weren't ruined were a Gryphon that Kari had given him and the Kuriboh that Yugi had given him, the rest were all ruined and it was only a burst of accidental magic that had saved these two and sent Dudley packing so he could attempt to save the rest of his cards.

It was strange, he had two of his favourite cards, but the one he'd tried hardest to save had been the Phoenix card that Joey had given him.

Harry knew Joey had even less money then Ron did so any card given to him by his blonde Japanese friend was treasured since the blonde was an absolute fanatic.

Harry sighed and tossed all the ruined cards, bar Phoenix, randomly into his backpack.

He was sure that if he was allowed to use magic out of school, then the warming spell that Kari knew could have saved the other cards, but he could focus on those later, right now he had to focus on saving Phoenix.

He'd originally come to the park with his cards because he was trying not to think about the fact that his birthday was only a few days away and Aunt Marge was coming to stay.

What a pleasant birthday surprise.

Harry was certain Yami would rather have Bakura Malfoy as a dorm mate then Harry would share a house with Aunt Marge and that really was saying something.

Aunt Marge's dog would spend the whole time biting people and she'd spend the whole time sniping at him for some imagined wrong.

He attempted to slip in the back door but Vernon and Petunia Dursley, his Aunt and Uncle, were waiting for him.

"What did you do?" Vernon roared. "I thought you couldn't do weird things out of school!"

"It was an accident, Dudley was chucking something given to me by my friends in the Park's Pond."

"Dudley claims you attacked him!"

"My friends, who are world class Duel Monsters players, gave me those cards and Dudley was chucking them in the pond!"

"You're lying!"

"Yugi Muto, the ex-King of Games, Joey Wheeler, his best friend and Kari Ironhide, the ex-Queen of Games gave me them!" Harry got angry, if he was Dudley they'd have gotten out of the way in an instant, "And he ruined them!" Harry brandished the Phoenix card.

"Why should we let you?"

"Because you really don't want to annoy the King of Games and he's my friend too." Harry took a deep breath, "If I promise to behave when Aunt Marge is over, will you let me go and dry my cards?" Harry tried to reason.

"Fine, go to your room!" Vernon snapped, grateful for a result that meant he technically won, since Harry went to his room, but didn't involve having to talk to the freak too much.

Harry rushed off to his room to save his cards.

Harry missed his friends more then ever as Phoenix went under his Potions textbook to dry and the rest of his cards got closely examined.

Half of them weren't as bad as he'd thought, but it was a tiny amount and he'd only had forty to begin with, a deck built of spares from the others, as Harry hadn't really wanted to get into the game with Quidditch and everything else going on.

He kind of regretted it now, as it was something his friends were really interested in and the game had looked interesting…

Harry sighed as he looked at the ruined cards. Kuriboh, Gryphon and Phoenix were the only ones properly salvageable from Dudley's little assault on them, three cards out of forty…

Yugi had said something in his last letter about the new Wizard Booster Packs that had been released earlier in the Summer and decided he was going to buy some when he got to Diagon Alley to try to make up for having his cards ruined.

Harry sighed and collapsed back onto his bed.

The others were giving him news, letter by letter, but Harry felt bad, not writing back to the ones who sent him letters from Japan, but he didn't have much Muggle money to buy stamps and things with.

For a couple of weeks Yugi, Yami and Joey hadn't been able to afford airmail either, but Yami had won that tournament since, and they'd sent him a letter that was three times the length to make up for it.

Harry grinned slightly at his friend's descriptions of their antics and then wondered how'd they'd react to his cousin destroying Harry's cards.

Yami would have Shadow Gamed him, that was easy.

Joey probably would have gotten into a fight with Dudley and won.

Kari would have glared and used the Orb to embarrass Dudley.

Ombre would have used the Orb too, but since Harry had only ever seen the Princess snap once, he didn't know how.

Ron would have attempted to hex Harry's cousin even though he was underage… if he had a new wand...

Hermione would have easily outsmarted Dudley.

Yugi was the hardest one to pin down. Harry had seen two sides of Yugi, the normal, nice, innocent version, and the version that came to play when Yami wasn't counterbalancing the Hikari's light.

Yugi minus Yami equalled run like hell but Harry had known he couldn't abandon his friend when he'd needed him, even though Yugi had lost control a couple of times.

Harry was pretty sure that if that was what happened when a hikari went a little mad, then a yami without a hikari was probably ten times worse, if not more so, but Ombre hadn't been without Kari long so she hadn't gotten to the point Yugi had.

The teen held the dry surviving cards up and his emerald eyes shot towards the potions book that was trying to dry his Phoenix card flat.

His friends had given him these cards as a symbol of their friendship and Harry felt bad he hadn't been able to protect the rest of the deck.

He was defiantly going to make himself a new one when he got to Diagon Alley…


	5. What the...?

"It hurts doesn't it, when you put your faith in the gods and they let you down?" Kaiba asked, Yami wasn't paying attention, he was too busy trying to find any trace of Yugi's mind inside the depths of the Puzzle, "If I were you, now's a good time to start praying for mercy." Yami looked up angrily at Kaiba, "Because from here on out, I'm planning to take you apart piece by painful piece."

Yami realised why he recognised Kaiba's behaviour, this was how he'd been acting pre-Hogwarts… pre-Kari… He also realised that Kaiba was not going to stop the Duel, even with Yugi and Kari unconscious. The old Kaiba just didn't care. Well if Kari and Yugi had been effected by something in the Duel, and Yami was certain it was the Pyramid's fault, then when he won, they'd recover… he hoped.

 _'Protect them, Mahado.'_ Yami looked at Mahado as he sent the thought.

 _I will, your highness._ The Dark Magician arrived.

"So let the torture continue with this: The torrential magic of Mystical Space Typhoon!" Kaiba only had to hold up the card for it's effect to take place, that shouldn't be right…"Your facedown card is destroyed."

Yami's Mirror Force was blown away.

"And if you liked that, then you're gonna love this: Peten The Dark Clown."

Yami growled as he wheeled around to face the CEO, he had no monsters on the field…

"But don't let his name fool you. He's no laughing matter." Peten vanished from in front of Kaiba, "Now, attack with Bloodlust Slash!"

Yami cried out as the blade coming through his back felt very real indeed, he fell to his hands and knees, as something drained away from him, pain wracking through him.

"And to top it off, I'll place this facedown on the field."

"That attack," Yami grunted, as he got back to his feet, "It drained me somehow. But I'm far from finished." He drew, summoning the card Kari had been trying to steal from him and Yugi for a while, "Magician's Valkyra, attack! Mystic Sceptre Blast!"

Peten the Dark Clown was destroyed.

Kaiba's points dropped and energy seeped away from the CEO.

"Nice try, Yami, but I knew you'd make that move, which is why my facedown card is Deck Destruction Virus!" Kaiba growled, "You set off this crippling trap when you destroyed my Dark Clown and now it's viral tentacles will infect ten random cards from your deck and then send them to the Graveyard."

"Oh no!" Yami gasped, staring at his deck.

"Oh yes, Yami. Now say goodbye to twenty-five percent of your Duel Deck."

"No!" Yami called as ten cards vanished from his deck.

"I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news, but when you destroyed my Peten the Dark Clown, you activated his special ability, allowing me to summon another Dark Clown to take his place." Another clown appeared on the field, "It's your move, Yami."

Yami was glaring at Kaiba, but his mind and heart were far away.

Hs gaze shifted to Yugi, who alongside Kari, was being watched over by Mana and Mahado.

"Yugi…"

* * *

Yugi groaned as he came round, sitting up, and looking around. Just feet from him, Kari was led on the ground. Yugi shook her back to consciousness, and she stared at their surroundings, "Wh…where are we?"

"This place looks kind of familiar…" Yugi started, biting his lower lip, then his eyes went wide, "This is what Yami's Soul Room leads onto, the Inside of the Millennium Puzzle!"

"How did I get inside the Puzzle?" Kari yelped.

"I'm not sure, but we've got to find Yami, so we can get back." Yugi looked around, "I'm pretty sure one of these rooms belongs to him."

"Which one? There must be hundreds, no thousands of doorways in this place."

"We'll just have to try doors until we find the right one, it's the only way."

"Yugi, Seto's not going to stop the Duel because of this, something's not right with him, he'll make Yami keep going." Kari sounded afraid, as they headed towards the first of the doors.

* * *

Joey was watching the Duel from the balcony.

Between himself, Gramps and Ombre, they'd managed to get the queue down far enough to allow the Muto 'twins' to slip out the back door but it had still been mad all day.

Things had quietened down just before three, when Yami and Yugi had come and collected their Duel Disks for their match with Kaiba and it had been so quiet afterwards that Gramps had let them leave to go and watch the match, if they got there in time.

Ombre and Joey had played Rock Paper Scissors and Joey had won, grabbing his jacket and running for it, reaching the Duel Dome at around quarter past, just in time for Mokuba to let him go up the other lift to the viewing platform.

He'd heard Yami and Yugi trying to reason with Seto, and Tobias had hovered warily as the duel began.

"It's no mistake." Kaiba claimed, "My entire strategy was to draw out your three Egyptian God Cards, so I can be the first Duellist to crush all of them at once."

Joey saw his Girlfriend give her employer a really confused look.

"Just how do you intend to do that?" Yami asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"You're about to find out right now." Kaiba smirked, "Reveal Trap Card. Pyramid of Light!"

Joey froze, the Pyramid of Light had been an artefact at the museum…

He saw Yami unconsciously shift into a defensive position and Yugi tense up.

Kaiba didn't know what he was playing with.

"Now, pyramid, activate!"

A bright blue light shot up from the card, and a blue blot of energy hit the ground, splitting into four and creating a pyramid shape.

All five of them were distracted by the Egyptian Gods' cries of pain… the Gods… in pain? What the hell was going on?

Joey started forward as the blue light pyramid closed in around the Duellists.

He froze as a disembodied voice started speaking Ancient Egyptian. He couldn't speak it and unlike Yugi wasn't learning it so it was all Greek to him. An eye like the one from the Millennium Items appeared on the side of the Pyramid.

Joey drew his wand without thinking, "What're you staring at?" He yelled at it.

Then had to grab tightly onto the railing as it felt like the eye tried to suck him in.

Tobias landed and braced himself against the railings.

Joey yelped as his body fell backwards but he stayed upright.

He could see through his hand!

Unable to resist the suction in spirit form, Joey was sucked into the eye as Tobias growled at the blue glow.

* * *

Ombre was on her way to the Duel Dome when the Earthquake happened.

She braced herself as the ground shook, and she found herself thinking longingly of Hogwarts where there weren't any Earthquakes, unlike in Japan.

Or at least that was what she was thinking until simultaneously a bright blue beam of light shot from the Duel Dome like a beacon into the sky and the link with her Hikari went dead.

She sped up, running as quickly as she could to reach the Duel Dome.

Someone was up to something and if her hikari was caught up in the middle of it, she wanted to stop it.

She couldn't lose her Hikari, she just couldn't.


	6. Mummies. Mummies? Ahhh!

Yami looked at his hand, then at Kaiba's field.

With both Yugi and Kari out of the match, this was a whole new game, and with some of his best cards already gone, it wasn't going to be an easy one.

"I play a card face down and end my turn Kaiba." Yami growled, unable to do anything else.

Kaiba drew, smirking, "I summon Des Feral Imp, and activate my Card of Demise. It lets me draw five cards but if I don't use them in five turns, I lose them in five turns." Kaiba couldn't have drawn a better hand if he'd stacked the deck himself, "Now, I'll sacrifice my Feral Imp to activate White Dragon Ritual, to summon Paladin of White Dragon!"

The knight riding a sort of Blue Eyes looking Dragon appeared in a flash of white light, "Paladin, attack with Ionic Spear Burst!"

The rider and dragon hit Valkyra straight in the chest. Yami cringed as more energy drained from him and his life points hit 3100. "It's like when I lose my life points, I lose my life energy…"

"And now, I activate Paladin's special ability to summon Blue Eyes White Dragon." Kisara didn't look as happy as Yami would have thought she would be with the turn of events. "Take a good look Yami, it's the monster that's been the bane of your existence since before you had your own body, and now she's back, but she's not alone, not for long." Seto set a card face down, "Any last requests?"

Yami realised that he was actually shaking in fear. If Kaiba pulled the move he was afraid Kaiba was going to pull, the Heart of the Cards was the only way he was getting out of this.

* * *

Yugi and Kari were sat on stairs of the interior of the Puzzle.

"It's a Puzzle, it has to have a solution!" Kari growled as they looked at their surroundings, "Can't you just tap into the Puzzle and ask it to take you to Yami?"

"You've obviously never been lost in your Millennium Item, I once got stuck in here for three days." Yugi sighed, "I learnt quickly that most of these doors are booby trapped."

"Yeah, I noticed that thanks." Kari's sarcasm made Yugi smile slightly, "So how are we getting out of here? Ombre'll go berserk if I'm stuck in here that long… oh no… Ombre!" Kari shot to her feet, "She will be going berserk! If I'm stuck in here, then who's in my body?"

Yugi got to his feet, "No one, probably."

"Exactly!" Kari growled, "We have to find a way out, fast!"

"We've tried all the…" Yugi trailed off, "Yami! Wait for us!"

"Yugi?" Kari yelped as the smaller teen ran off, "Yugi, wait up!"

Yugi chased after the Pharaoh, whose shade vanished through an unmarked metal door. "That's not his room…"

Yugi opened it as Kari caught up with him.

The room inside looked like an Egyptian tomb, with plain Sarcophagi lying on the floor, surrounding a much more ornate one that the Pharaoh's shade had stopped by. Jackal headed, it creeped Kari out slightly and Yugi yelped as Yami's shade turned into blue energy and vanished into it.

"Yami!" Kari growled as someone started laughing.

"Who's there?" Yugi demanded, drawing his wand and quickly trying to spot anyone else in the room.

Kari shifted into a defensive position and drew her own wand as the voice started speaking Ancient Egyptian. She didn't know all of it, but she knew enough to know this wouldn't be good.

The Sarcophagi opened, revealing mummies and Yugi took a step backward as they emerged from their resting places, both hikari's trembling as the mummies started approaching.

"Incendio!" Kari bellowed, pointing her wand at the nearest of the Mummies, who burst into flame, igniting the four around it but dying before it could ignite the rest.

Yugi and Kari were on their fifth or sixth Incendio when they realised there was just too many, turned, and ran for it.

* * *

Joey was heading in the direction he'd heard Yugi and Kari's voices coming from when two blurs shot past him.

"Yugi! Kari! Wait up!"

"Talk later…" Yugi panted, "Run now!"

"What?" Joey asked, turning and looking back the way his friends had come from.

The Mummies came around the corner and Joey easily caught up to his friends as they fled.

* * *

Ombre couldn't believe that the Duel Dome was still standing after this afternoon's earthquake but what was more worrying was that the huge blue Pyramid, that looked like that artefact they'd seen in the museum, was still standing after the holoemitters had broken.

This was no ordinary duel.

Ombre tried to see through the blue Pyramid without touching it. She didn't know what it did and she wouldn't be able to help her hikari if she got herself trapped in the same magic.

"Ombre!" Ombre's head shot around to find the younger Kaiba brother looking at her in relief.

"What is that?" Ombre asked, "Please tell me that's not the Pyramid of Light!"

"Uhhh, this whole madness started when Seto played a card by that name…" Mokuba trailed off,

"Is Kari inside that thing?" Ombre demanded, scaring him slightly.

"She's in there, along with Yugi, Yami and my brother." Mokuba said quietly, "How is this possible?"

"Mokuba, think about where we go to school, and then think about what you just asked."

"Ah."

"It might have something to do with Egyptian Lord at the Museum." Ombre said, "Anubis, Lord of the Dead."

"How? Wasn't he a Mummy?" Mokuba asked. Ombre looked at him, "Kari isn't the only one interested in where you and Yami come from." He said defensively.

"There was a legend on the sarcophagus." Ombre sighed, "Anubis once tried to destroy the world using the Pyramid of Light and we think Yami might have defeated him back then."

"So this is a remnant of a battle held over five thousand years ago?" Mokuba asked her with wide eyes.

Ombre nodded, "And I have to get inside it, to try to help Kari. Anubis may be planning on using that Pyramid as a launching platform for a second attempt."

"We've got to get them out of there." Mokuba sounded panicked, "Kari and Yugi passed out just after the card was played but Yami and my brother are still fighting!"

Ombre growled, swearing to tear Kaiba into a million little pieces when this was over and settled for seeing if her Orb could interact with the Pyramid at all.

* * *

"I don't know what Dark Powers are at work here, but I can't let them go unchecked!" Yami snapped at Kaiba as he played Premature Burial to raise Magician's Valkyra from the graveyard, "And I'll boost her strength with Mage Power!" Yami's points dropped to 2300 as he paid the life point cost and had to pause for a moment to let his head clear.

"It may cost me eight hundred life points," Yami continued as Valkyra reappeared with a nod to Yami, Mahado and Mana and then turned and gave Kaiba the most disgusted glare she could manage, "But my Valkyra gains five hundred attack and defence points every time I play a Magic or Trap card, like this one." Yami played another card face down and Valkyra's attack rose by fifteen hundred, five hundred for every magic or trap card on Yami's field.

Yami glared up at the huge dragon, "A thousand extra points make her more then a match for your Blue Eyes!" Yami said, his voice a low growl, Attack Valkyra! With Mystic Scepter Blast!"

The Spellcaster launched her attack.

"Not so fast Yami!" Kaiba growled, "Attack Guidance Armour will save my Blue Eyes!" He activated the trap card and it attached itself to Peten, the Dark Clown, redirecting the Spellcaster's attack.

Yami just growled as Kaiba smirked over the fact that Yami lost another quarter of his deck to Kaiba's Deck Destruction Virus. Mana gave the cards being destroyed a sharp look, as if… Yami realised what was wrong. The card that was the part of her that lived in his deck had been sent to the Graveyard… If Yami had any doubts that this was a Shadow Game, they were now gone as he realised half his deck now rested in the Graveyard.

"Soon you'll deck out and I'll be King of Games." Seto smirked, a cold icy smirk, "But first I'll bring back a friend who just hates to say goodbye." Another Peten the Dark Clown appeared and Yami was glad to know that it was the last one Kaiba could have in his deck. It chuckled and waved at Yami who glared at it.

Seto drew and gave Yami a look that the Pharaoh just knew was trouble, "I'm gonna summon up your worst nightmare, because if you couldn't defeat one Blue Eyes…" Yami knew what he was going to do before he even announced it and took an involuntary step backwards. Mahado and Mana looked at each other and moved quickly between Kaiba's monsters and the two fallen hikaris. "There's no way you'll defeat three, especially combined as the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

"If you think she's scary now just wait until she attacks, in fact, don't wait. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack with Neutron Blast!"

The three heads attacked as one, a look of fear gracing Vakyra's features just before the attack destroyed her and carried on to Yami, shocking the Pharaoh with it's leftover electrical energy as his points dropped to 1500.

Mahado watched his Master carefully, he was exhausted, hunched over and attempting to catch his breath as Kaiba started speaking again, "Look at the World's Best Duellist now." He said, if he'd crammed any more sarcasm into the sentence, it would have collapsed under the weight.

* * *

Yugi, Joey and Kari all stopped running to catch their breath as they reached a great chasm in the Puzzle's floor.

"I think we lost them." Joey gasped.

"Mummies? In the Puzzle?" Kari glared at Yugi, "Does Yami know?"

"I didn't know before today." Yugi gasped back at her.

The evil laugh started again and Kari drew her wand again, "You know that's really starting to get on my nerves."

"Yugi, where are we?" Joey asked.

"We've been drawn into the Millennium Puzzle." Yugi said, worried as he looked up at the huge floating Millennium Symbol which was surrounded by red energy. "And thing up there is somehow responsible."

"Yugi… look down there…"

"What the?"

"The Pyramid of Light and the Millennium Puzzle?" Yugi was just as shocked as Joey and Kari were.

"That Pyramid looks like it's kicking the crud out of your Puzzle, Yuge." Joey said, trying to sound calm.

"Fighting Pyramids and creepy floating eyes, wonderful." Kari growled.

"You should be used to this by now." Joey said with a laugh.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Yugi, could this be the work of Anubis?" Kari asked, as they looked around.

"The same Lord of the Dead whose Mummy was at the Museum?" Joey asked, "But he's dead!"

"So're Yami and Ombre and they're still here aren't they?" Kari said with a glare at her boyfriend.

The floating Millennium Symbol's red gem like core showed them a vision of the Duel and Kari ground her teeth as they watched Yami getting blasted by Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate.

"I know he wouldn't stop!" Kari snarled, "There's something wrong with him!"

"Yami's not looking so hot either." Joey said, worried.

"We have to do something to help him!" Yugi growled at his own inability, "And the only thing I can think of right now is to go back to Anubis's Tomb."

"Back towards the Mummies?" Joey yelped.

"You know Incendio, right?" Kari attempted a light laugh as they turned and headed back the way they'd come.

* * *

Does it hurt Yami?" Kaiba sounded triumphant, doing nothing but angering the Pharaoh, "Because it only gets worse from here."

"Kaiba, we can't continue this Duel," Yami decided to try the reasoning route again, "There's another power at work here, and it's destroying us both!"

"Give me a break."

"No, that Pyramid of Light has created a deadly Shadow Game. I know you can sense it! We must stop now!"

"The only thing I sense is your fear, not that I blame you, but I came here to win and stopping isn't an option. For all the times you humiliated me in a Duel, when clearly I should have been the champion! For all those years I had to listen to you preach about the Heart of the Cards…" Kisara gave her chosen a disgusted look and flew over to Mana, who glared at Mahado until he agreed to let Kisara help stand guard. "You're going down Yami and my Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon is going to put you there!"

"Kaiba, once again your ridiculously over inflated ego blinds you the truth! I am far from beaten!" Yami roared, finally pushed the edge by Kaiba's ranting. "I play Monster Reborn to bring back, Dark Magician Girl!" Mana and his Dark Magician Girl grinned at each other, before his monster settled down to battle, "Next I reveal my face down spell card, Sage's Stone! When Ma… the Dark Magician Girl is on the field and Sage's Stone is in play it allows me to automatically summon the Dark Magician!"

Mahado watched as a Dark Magician appeared on the field, half bowing to the Pharaoh before giving him a stern look and Mana and the Dark Magician Girl a small smile each.

"Big deal." Kaiba smirked.

"Oh it's a very big deal." Yami however had his, uh-no-I –know-that-look-we're-all-gonna-die, death smirk on. "For now I sacrifice both Magicians to summon the Sorcerer of Dark Magic!"

He appeared, twirling his staff as if bored and giving Kaiba a glare that would easily kill if he was a Basilisk.

"And with his rise to power, comes your Blue Eyes's fall from grace, because for everyone of my Sorcerer's fallen comrades in the graveyard, your dragon loses five hundred points." It was Kaiba's turn to take a step back as he realised the implications, "And right now there have been three magician's laid to rest so your precious Ultimate Dragon loses fifteen hundred points!"

"But that means my Blue Eyes is vulnerable to an attack!"

"That's exactly what it means!" Yami continued, "Attack with Celestial Blast!"

A huge blast of energy shot from the black robed Sorcerer's staff and blew Blue Eyes Ultimate to pieces. It was Kaiba's turn to be drained, as his life points decreased by two hundred.

"Now, will you stop this madness?"

"After one lucky move? I don't think so."

"Very well," Yami shrugged, "You leave me no choice, I move to attack Peten, the Dark Clown!"

"No, I'll have no monsters left to defend my life points!" Kaiba growled.

"Sorcerer! Celestial Blast Atttack!"

The Spellcaster blew away Peten without a second thought.

"You may have destroyed my clown but you forgot about my trap card and just at a time you couldn't afford to." Kaiba snapped at him. "Your deck's about to be wiped out!"

The virus attempted to discard more cards, but the Sorcerer batted the tendrils away.

"What?" Kaiba demanded.

"Sorry Kaiba, but my Sorcerer of Dark Magic's power is so mighty that he can stop the activation of Trap Cards and destroy them. My deck is safe."

"But your life points aren't." Kaiba growled, he drew and started laughing, a strange laugh that didn't sound much like Kaiba at all.

 _The Pyramid…_ Yami thought.

"I activate the magic of Monster Reborn." His Ultimate Dragon reappeared, "Then I sacrifice my reborn Ultimate Dragon to summon a new monster!"

"What?"

"That's right. I have a dragon even more powerful then Ultimate, compliments of Pegasus! A shiny new dragon. The Blue Eyes Shining Dragon!"

Ultimate Dragon's scales cracked, revealing a hard metallic armour underneath. The new dragon looked more like a Blue Eyes White Jet then an organic dragon.

"And for every dragon in my Graveyard, Shining gets an additional three hundred attack points, that's an extra fifteen hundred attack points right off the bat for a punishing grand total of 4500 points."

"But don't forget, due to my Sorcerer's special effect your dragon loses fifteen hundred points."

"I don't think so," Kaiba smirked, "Thanks to my dragon's Shining Diffusion!"

"What? Your points didn't decrease!" Yami yelped as Blue Eyes Shining's ability stopped the effect of his Sorcerer.

"Exactly. My Blue Eyes Shining Dragon allows me to chose what magic, trap or monster effects can be used against him." Kaiba smirked as Yami flinched slightly, "Just face it Yami, the Muto 'twins' days as the Kings of Games are numbered, I'm going to knock you both back to the minor leagues where you belong, now, hit him again Blue Eyes! Shining Neutron Blast!"

The dragon's attack destroyed Yami's Sorcerer without hesitation and carried on through, slamming into Yami and causing everyone inside the Pyramid to be temporally flash blinded.

Yami's points dropped to 200.

Kaiba was grinning as the light died. Yami was barely on his feet, energy draining away. "How do you like it? The pain, the sting of defeat. I felt it for too long. Now it's your turn."

Too drained of energy to remain on his feet any longer, Yami collapsed.


	7. Comes the Dark

"Are you sure this is the way, Yuge?" Joey asked as they ran, "All the corridors look them same!"

Yugi was about to answer when something seared through him, causing him to cry out and trip over his own feet, sending him crashing to the floor.

"Yugi!" Joey and Kari had stopped and were by his side in less then a second. "What's wrong?"

Yugi knew without having to think, though it took him a moment to get his head clear again. "Y…Yami…" Yugi stammered, "It's Yami! He's hurt!"

Yugi attempted to get to his feet, but they just gave out under him and the world spun.

"I gotcha pal." Joey said, letting Yugi put all his weight on him.

"Check it out." Kari pointed into the ravine, "It's some kind of energy stream. That wasn't there just now."

"If we follow it, it might lead us to Anubis." Yugi said, managing to shake the last of the fog that had invaded his mind.

"Come on then." Joey smiled at him, and then glanced at Kari who nodded and drew her wand. "Let's go get him."

* * *

The Pyramid was glowing brighter then ever as Ombre pulled Mokuba away.

"Seto! Kari!" The boy struggled in her grip, "Yugi! Yami!"

Ombre personally agreed with him, they had to get in there, but she didn't think that Kaiba would be best pleased if she let his little brother get hurt. She had just enough time to worry about the storm clouds that were swirling overhead, before an earthquake started that threatened to shake apart what remained of the Duel Dome.

Ombre hadn't felt one this bad the whole time she'd been aware and held on tightly, curling over Mokuba to protect him as parts of the Duel Dome's roof fell. What she guessed was the control room collapsed, landing on the Pyramid of Light which just let off some light and caused the thing to explode, sending what pieces didn't land on the Pyramid and burn up, everywhere.

"Ombre!" Mokuba squeaked as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

She growled, tapping into the Orb, which was just beyond the Pyramid wall and using its powers to allow her to push the falling ceiling away from them.

"Up here!" Ombre let go of Mokuba and looked up. Flying in a helicopter over the collapsing building and letting down a rope ladder, was a man with silver hair was shouting down to them.

"Pegasus?" Mokuba yelped.

"I'd hurry up!" Maximillian Pegasus shouted down to them. Ombre looked over her shoulder. The floor was collapsing… She pushed Mokuba, who was hesitating, towards the rope ladder and got a foot on herself.

Once they were safely in the helicopter Mokuba turned to Pegasus, "What're you doing here?"

"How about we start with a thank you little ingrate. Ombre couldn't have saved you forever, be grateful I worked out what this Pyramid of Light thing is."

"We already know." Ombre said, trying to spot her hikari through the blue light, "It's the Pyramid of Light, belonging to the Lord of the Dead who fought Yami over five thousand years ago. I figure he's trying to make a come back." Pegasus looked put out that they'd worked it out before he'd gotten there. "My hikari, Yugi, Yami and Kaiba are all trapped in there."

"Your hikari?" Pegasus gave her an odd look she didn't catch because she was too busy keeping an eye on what was going on below. He shook his head; it was information for another day. "Kaiba thinks he got that card from me," Pegasus continued as if nothing had been said, "But I didn't create it, this was all arranged by Anubis."

"So it is Anubis that created that Pyramid!"

"It's more then just a Pyramid, Anubis has created the ultimate Shadow Game and he gets stronger every moment."

"Kari…" Ombre murmured unhappily as she stared at the Pyramid below. "I've got to get in there."

* * *

"Looks like this is it." Joey said as they followed the energy to an open doorway, the same one Yugi and Kari had fled from. Kari took point, wand out, as they entered.

The energy was flowing around the room and into red jewelled Millennium Symbol above the decorated sarcophagus.

Kari wasn't sure she wanted to know what was going on, she had a bad feeling the energy was coming from Yami. The voice that had spoken the ancient Egyptian was laughing, louder and louder as more energy drained into the symbol.

"Foolish Mortals." He laughed, Kari looked back over her shoulder at Joey and Yugi who had drawn their wands, "There is nothing you can do to stop my rebirth. I have infiltrated the realm of the Pharaoh, and his life force now feeds mine."

Yugi growled, moving to the front of their group, "We won't let you kill Yami to save yourself!"

"There is nothing you can do, mortal, for when the Pharaoh loses this Duel, your life force will belong to me too."

"They're on the same team!" Kari's eyes went huge. "If Yami loses…"

Yugi didn't look afraid, "We're gonna take you down Anubis!" He growled.

"I'd stay in that casket if I were you." Joey smirked, wand drawn, ready for battle, "Cause there's three of us and one of you."

Yugi took one step forward and the mummies started appearing from corners and from behind sarcophagi.

"I'd rather have the Hogwarts ghosts." Kari said, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

"What do you want anyway?" Yugi demanded.

"Behold the future, since you won't live to see it for yourself." A portal appeared, some sort of scrying portal, showing cities burning and Duel Monsters attacking, "Soon my beasts of destruction shall annihilate all traces of life on Earth, and I will finally complete what I started millennia ago." Anubis's voice took on an amused edge, "It is by your hand that this devastation will occur, mortal, for when you released the Pharaoh you released me as well."

Yugi's face turned determined and he took a step down the stairs to the mummy ridden floor below. "Yuge?" Joey asked, a multitude of questions in the one word.

"This is between him and me." Yugi answered, he turned to Joey and Kari, "Listen, you guys need to find a way out of…"

"Yuge, you didn't walk out on Harry when we went down to the Chamber of Secrets, I'm not walking out on you now." Joey said, looking at him like he was stupid.

"I'm not going anywhere." Kari said, "We're in this too."

"You don't have to stay, but I have to figure out that Prophecy."

"You work it out, we'll burn things that try and stop you." Joey shrugged, Ombre had explained the Prophesy to them yesterday, at the Museum.

"But guys…"

"Not going anywhere Yuge." Joey said as if that ended the conversation, and to Kari and Joey it did.

"Incendio!" Yugi gave up trying to reason with them, turned around and yelled, pointing his wand at the nearest Mummy.

It burst into flames, running around like a headless chicken and setting four or five others alight before collapsing.

"Do you think Mummy powder is a required potions ingredient next year?" Kari asked as she started casting.

"If it is, don't tell Yami." Joey advised. "Though we have plenty in stock here, do you like your Mummies rare or extra crispy?"

"Guys…" Yugi backed up slightly as a fresh wave of mummies appeared, "I don't think the jokes are helping."

"INCENDIO!" Joey bellowed, the flames launched from the end of his wand, but a blast of light from what had to be Anubis's Sarcophagus sent the flames back at them. They avoided them but the flames cut their escape route off.

"So glad we're spirits here, and don't need to breathe." Kari murmured. As the smoke rose, Joey was just as glad.

Anubis was still laughing as the three friends stood back to back, ready for a fresh round of casting, while hoping Anubis wouldn't be able to block all of their spells.

* * *

Yami was exhausted and in pain, but knew he couldn't give up as he attempted to get back to his feet.

"Look how the mighty have fallen." Kaiba snorted, "Lying on the ground like a dog waiting to be put out of it's misery. Get up!" Kaiba growled, "Get up so I can knock you back down!" There was another voice echoing Kaiba's as he spoke and Yami glared at him as best he could from his position on the floor.

Mahado came over and gave the Pharaoh a hand to his feet. _Your highness, are you alright?_ He asked as he supported the Pharaoh until he was steady enough on his own.

' _I'm fine, Mahado,'_ Yami answered, _'I'm more concerned about Yugi and Kari then I am about myself.'_

Mahado didn't look like he believed him for a second but stayed at his side to offer help if it was needed.

"Something's not right here, Kaiba, and you know it!"

"Spare me, Yami, you're just trying to come with an excuse for losing!" Kaiba replied.

"You have no idea what's at stake here!" Yami snarled, drawing, "But believe me, I cannot let you win this Duel!" He summoned a Monster, "Big Shield Gardna, in defence mode!"

"I think you're the one who doesn't have a clue what this duel is about. It's about payback." Kaiba drew and his smirk grew wider, "And this card will see to that." Yami frowned slightly but Kaiba continued, "But first let's deal with your so called Big Shield Gardna. Do you think it's beg enough to block the power of my Blue Eyes Shining Dragon?"

Up above them in the helicopter, Mokuba had spotted Joey's unconscious form.

"Shining Dragon! Attack with Shining Neutron Blast!" Kaiba yelled, the dragon attacked, blowing away Yami's defences.

Mahado was between Yami and the attack before it blasted through the Warrior Monster and put up a shield to defend Yami.

Kaiba just rolled his eyes. "I told you when we started this duel, that this time was gonna be different Yami. You may have beaten me in the past, but now there's nothing you can do to stop me from having my revenge!" The echo was back again, much deeper and worrying then Kaiba's own voice. "You're finished."

"Not yet I'm not." Yami merely replied as he drew. "I activate Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two more cards." Kaiba looked bored, "And I summon Watapon, in defence mode." A cream puff looking thing appeared on the field. "And since I used Pot of Greed to summon Watapon, I can summon another monster to the field and I choose Obnoxious Celtic Guardian! It's your move."

"So let me see if I've got this straight, you're playing a cream puff and an elf. Well it's your funeral." Kaiba drew, "First the Card of Demise I played before sends this dragon to the Graveyard and I know you know what that means, don't you? Now my Blue Eyes Shining Dragon has more destructive power then ever before."

"Kaiba please, listen to me." Yami was trying to reason again.

"All I want to hear from you is your anguished cry of defeat." The echo was there for most of the sentence.

"Kaiba for the last time, I'm begging you to stop this. People are getting hurt, lives are in danger and this Pyramid of Light you've created is the source of it all." Yami's hand pointed towards the fallen hikaris. "Kari considers you her friend, and yet you don't even care what happens to her."

Kaiba looked stunned for a moment and he glanced over at the two.

"There's a dark power in our midst," Yami continued, "You can't deny it. With every life point we've lost, we've both become weaker, I know you can feel it!" Kaiba looked away from the two, "We must stop before it's too late!"

Yami could see Kaiba was thinking, and hoped he was getting through to him. Kaiba's eyes opened and Yami's hear sank, "I'm afraid for you it's already to late!"

"Kaiba please, you mustn't do this! We have to stop the madness! All we have to do is stop this duel!" _If I lose, what happens to Yugi?_

"You're absolutely right Yami, stopping this Duel is exactly what I'm going to do. Now, Shining Blue Eyes activate your final special ability!"

"No! You're playing with forces you can't possibly understand."

Kaiba hesitated but Yami didn't get his hopes up as Kaiba's eyes went to the face down card.

"I use Shining Nova!" Kaiba bellowed. "The rage of a thousand Blue Eyes goes into a blast so strong that it destroys itself plus anything I choose and the card that will feel the wrath of Blue Eyes Shining Dragon, is the Pyramid of Light!" Hesitation again, was Kaiba trying to fight the Pyramid's grip? "The Muto's grip on the title King of Games is about to be broken, Yami, that title will be mine, along with all three of your Egyptian God Cards." Kaiba glanced at Kari, then gazed up at his dragon, "Blue Eyes Shining Dragon, sacrifice yourself and destroy the Pyramid of Light!"

A huge explosion rocked the Duellists as the dragon exploded and a huge beam of white light attacked the card.

Yami watched as the light faded and the card still stood.

Someone was laughing. "This I cannot allow."

"What? The Pyramid of Light wasn't destroyed?" Yami gasped.

"The Pyramid of Light endures because I will it, so great is my power." Yami recognised the voice as the echo from Kaiba's voice that had been so obvious in the last few turns.

"Hey! What is this? Show yourself, whoever you are!" Kaiba demanded.

"I have been here the whole time, mortal, whispering in your ear."

"The whole time?" Kaiba questioned, "No, this is a trick of some sort."

 _He doesn't want to believe that he's been possessed most of the duel…_ Yami thought, before realising the shadow behind Kaiba was growing larger. "Kaiba! Look out!"

Kaiba wheeled around as a huge man appeared from the gloop the shadows were becoming. "You have served me well little worm, but you have outlived your usefulness!" The man grabbed Kaiba and threw him far enough away to not be in the way. "Kaiba! No!" Yami yelped as Kaiba hit the ground hard, head first, and didn't move.

"Mahado!" Yami snapped. The Dark Magician was already moving, grabbing up the CEO and bringing him over to the others to check over. Yami couldn't move though, he was too busy watching Anubis take form, hair, clothes… Pyramid…

Shadows surrounded him as Yami glared, "So it's been you behind this whole duel, manipulating Kaiba all along, the Egyptian Lord of the Dead, Anubis!"

"I am pleased that you remember me after all this time, my Pharaoh. It will make my ultimate vengeance all the sweeter." Anubis looked at Yami, "You will fall and my reign of destruction shall begin."

"We'll see." Yami growled back at him.

"The souls of your mortal friends have already fallen, trapped within your Puzzle."

Yami froze, glancing quickly over to the Millennium Puzzle, whose chain was still around Yugi's neck. "My friends?"

"Lost in the labyrinth of the dead, and the best part is, when I destroy you, I kill him as well, I don't even have to fight another Duel to remove your only heir."

Yami didn't think about that last bit, Yugi wasn't his heir, he was his hikari… he knew he was trembling, from rage, fear and exhaustion, he didn't know if he could do this and Yugi's life was resting on his shoulders. "You're wrong, I can still sense their presence, and I will fight to protect them!" Yami snapped at him. "No matter what happens, I will not let your evil plan come to pass!" _I won't let you kill Yugi._

"All I need to do is defeat you in this Duel and the Prophecy will be fulfilled, you will be destroyed! The magic of the Shadow Games you sealed away centuries ago will once again be unleashed upon the world." Anubis held his hand palm up and open and two cards appeared, "And I shall finally take my place as the Pharaoh of this realm. With the Pyramid of Light at my command, there is nothing you can do to stop me." Dark clouds formed inside the Pyramid and Yami and Mahado growled simultaneously as they realised what was going on, "The ultimate Shadow Game is just beginning." Black goop fell from Anubis's hands and formed into two huge sphinx monsters, "I summon the terrible beasts, Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia."

Yami backed up slightly and drew, "Reverse of Reverse…" Yami muttered, playing it face down. He honestly didn't know what he was going to do.

"Search your deck from now until Doomsday, you won't find anything to stand against my savage Shadow Realm beasts. No my Pharaoh, I'm afraid that for you, doomsday is today." Anubis summoned one card face down, "Now watch as your last line of defence is ripped to shreds before your eyes. Sphinx Teleia, it's feeding time!"

She pounced on Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, who's eyes widened and then he exploded.

"No!"

"And now it's your turn Andro Sphinx." The beast roared and Watapon died. "Each time Andro Sphinx destroys a monster, half of that monster's attack points are taken from my opponent's life points. You have only 100 points left."

More energy gone, Yami was only still on his feet because of Mahado.

"Your fate is sealed, Pharaoh, soon you will be the relic buried away, soon worms will feed on your flesh, just as they did on mine."

Yami glanced at Yugi and drew his last card, "Your worms will have to wait Anubis, I trust my fate to the Heart of the Cards." Yami froze… "No monsters, just two magic cards, that's all I have left…"


	8. Aftermath

Yugi was trying to work out the Prophecy and Joey and Kari had his back, using wand, fist and foot to keep the Mummies away.

The eye was still stopping their spells from time to time.

The eye…

"I've got it!" Yugi grinned, pushing the lid off the sarcophagus. "Dagger, dagger, please be here… got it!" Joey spared a quick look over his shoulder to see that Yugi had an ornamental dagger in his hand.

"What do you need to do with it, Yuge?" He asked, then yelped as Kari accidentally set part of his jacket alight with her spell. He threw it off and chucked it into the blaze that had taken over three quarters of the room… they were running out of time, the smoke couldn't hurt them, but any burns from the flames wouldn't heal and would injure their souls. After all, what happens in a Soul Room is permanent…

Yugi lobbed the dagger as hard as he could, but it struck handle first as Kari got dragged off the plinth. Yugi heard her terrified scream, saw what had happened, and knew he'd failed.

Something cracked and Yugi wheeled back around to see the eye was cracking… giving off magical sparks…

* * *

Anubis snarled and Yami gasped as the Pyramid's power dropped exponentially. _I sense a weakness in the Pyramid's Power…_ Yami's eye flickered over to his hikari, _Yugi…_ There was real pride in his tone and he made up his mind what he was going to do. "I activate Double Spell, by discarding one card I can select a new one from my opponent's graveyard and use it as my own and I know just the card I want." It flew from Kaiba's Duel Disk to Yami's hand, "Monster Reborn! So come forth, mighty Blue Eyes Shining Dragon!" It appeared behind him, "And I have a hunch that this time, your Pyramid won't stand up to it!" Yami looked at Blue Eyes Shining, "Use Shining Nova, to finish what you started before and destroy the Pyramid of Light!"

The card exploded. "Impossible!" Anubis roared as his monsters blew up.

Yugi was too close to the flames for his liking when everything vanished around him in a burst of white light.

The Pyramid crashed down around Yami and Anubis's ears but Yami didn't take his eyes of Anubis until Mahado called.

Yugi was sitting up and quickly taking in what was going on, his Duel Disk reactivating on it's own, as Kari tried to figure out who, what, where, when and how?

"You!" Anubis snarled at Yugi, who glared back. Yami, who wasn't used to Yugi glaring watched as Yugi retook his place in the Duelling Arena. "You did this."

Yugi just smiled at Yami who grinned back.

"And with that I'll end my turn, now the Pyramid of Light is gone." Yami said, smirking at Anubis.

"If you get your tag team partner back so do I, Pharaoh." Anubis snarled.

Kari's eyes widened and she collapsed to her knees. "Not enough room in my head for you, you'll have to bother someone else." Yugi heard her murmur as she tried to stay in control. Ombre was on the move already, from the balcony, down to her hikari's side, with Mana's help.

"Leave Kari alone, it's me you're fighting." Yami snarled, "Yugi stay out of this."

"But…" Yugi started.

"Just do it." Yami growled. Yugi frowned but backed off.

"You can't possibly win," Anubis snarled. "You destroyed the Card, Pharaoh, but not the Pyramid of Light that hangs around my neck. Behold its power!" Another monster started to form, "Inspired by your modern saying, 'two heads are better then one.'" Yugi and Yami watched with a combination of horror and disgust as it finally finished taking shape, "Thinien, the Great Sphinx!"

The monster had both the heads of Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia and the body to match.

"And now Pyramid of Light, feed this perfect beast with dead souls set free!"

Ghosts shot from the Pyramid and what Mummies hadn't been burnt already escaped from the Puzzle and shot towards Thinien, who swallowed them whole, boosting his attack to around 20,000.

"Please tell me that attack meter's broke!" Joey yelped as the huge screen, one of the only parts of the Duel Dome still standing, showed Thinien's attack rising still further.

"Say hello Thinien." Anubis growled, Thinien growled. "Five thousand years ago I never got the chance to summon Thinien to our battle, so I think it's best I make up for lost time. Thinien, meet the Pharaoh and Pharaoh, meet your doom!"

" _Yami, you have no cards left, how are you going to fight that thing?"_

' _If I'm right about what Kaiba was planning, I can still win this.'_ "All right Anubis, this is still a Duel and I still have one card to play." Yami activated his very last card. "Reverse of Reverse, which allows me to use the last card played by Kaiba!" It activated and Yugi could sense the relief in his yami's spirit, "Return from the Different Dimension!"

Yugi got it instantly, Anubis was going down.

"When Kaiba spoke of dealing us the perfect defeat, he meant wiping us out with our own Egyptian God Cards." Through a portal that had appeared arrive the three Gods in all their glory, "Allow me to introduce, Obelisk the Tormentor, Slipher the Sky Dragon ad the Winged Dragon of Ra! Egyptian Gods combine now for infinite power!" Ra went into phoenix mode and both it and Slipher rested on Obelisk's shoulders. "Titan Firestorm!"

The ground shook as the attack rushed at Thinien, causing it's destruction and destroying the last of Anubis's life points.

Anubis was blasted back into the broken ground, where magma had supposedly risen, and no one could look away as he collapsed in the flames, exploding just like a Duel Monster would.

Yugi grinned at Yami for a moment and then rushed forward as Yami collapsed. "Yami? Yami!"

 _He's alright Yugi._ Boh passed Mahado's message on, _Just tired._

The Gods faded away now the battle was over and Mahado gave Yugi a hand with Yami who was trying to insist that he was fine to walk and it was only a couple of minor bumps and they were to stop fussing over him this instant because he was fine and as per usual Yugi paid absolutely no attention.

Ombre was hovering around Kari who was helping Kaiba to his feet. "Seto, you've got to rest that arm." She was scolding him as he tried to use the arm on the side that had crashed into the ground after his head, instead of taking her help.

All of them froze as Anubis laughed and the red gem from the Pyramid that had shattered glowed a very bright red.

"What the?" Kaiba started but was cut off by black flame rising from the jewel.

"Shadows take life, creatures be born, now lets see how well you play this game when the monsters are real!" The Duellists who'd gained Duel Monster partners looked at them and then to the doglike shape that was forming. "It is no longer time to duel, now it is time to die!"

The dog Anubis shot black flame at them, but they all escaped the flames and turned back to face him in battle.

"Mana, get Kari and Ombre out of here, Joey…" It didn't need to be said, Joey nodded and started moving the group he was with out of the building.

"Mahado, take Yami and go." Yugi growled, reaching for his deck, Boh by his feet.

"Yugi, don't even think about it." Yami snapped.

"Nothing in your decks of cards can save you now!" Anubis snarled, something hit the Duellists opposite Anubis, and their Duel Disks exploded and launched cards all over the place.

"It appears you're one card short."

"Yeah, but I'm not!" Joey yelled.

"Joey, no!"

"I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight and Gilford the Lightening! Attack!"

Anubis blasted away Joey's monsters and Tobias only just got his partner out from under a falling piece of roof.

"We need a real monster…" Kari growled.

"But none of ours can take that thing on!" Ombre growled.

Anubis started launching dark magic missiles at everything. Yami was suddenly aware of one heading for him and froze as he realised he'd never get out of the way in time.

Then there was something between him and the magic. It was slammed back into him and they both crashed to the ground. Yami looked up to see what it was. "Yugi! No!"

The Pharaoh's heart stopped for a second as Yugi didn't respond.

The hikari was led limply on top of him, the pain tearing through the hikari's soul the only implication that he wasn't...

Then Yugi's eyes opened and pain filled violet met terrified ruby for a split second before Yugi rolled off of Yami and attempted to get to his feet. Yami could sense it as he pushed himself to a sitting position, the amount of effort it was taking Yugi just to remain conscious, let alone move...

Yami winced as Yugi half fell, stopped by Kari supporting him. Yugi glared at Anubis, "Pick on someone your own size!" He growled as Yami wondered how much longer Yugi could keep this up and couldn't help thinking that there was no one there Anubis's size, he'd been huge as a human and his dog form was almost as big as the Gods.

"Yugi!" Kaiba tossed Yugi a card, "You have to use a real monster to beat a real monster. Use this; it's the one card that can beat him!"

Yami felt Yugi gather his magic, and made up his mind, even as Yugi's attempt to summon the Shining Dragon failed. Staggering to his feet, Yami moved to his hikari's side and placed his own hand on the card, receiving a thankful look from Yugi as he did so. "Shining Nova!" The two yelled in unison as the Dragon appeared, Anubis attempted to blast it but the dragon responded on its own even before they gave it a target, "Destroy Anubis!"

The dragon exploded and took Anubis out with her.

The huge dog melted into a puddle of gloop and the red gem broke into about a million pieces.

"Did we get him?" Yugi asked, Yami could hear the pain in his voice and winced.

"I think so." Yami said, trying to reassure himself as much as Yugi.

"Please, Anubis is gone, no one can come from a defeat as devastating as that," Pegasus said, as he, Mokuba and Joey who'd been dragged out by Tobias, arrived back in the epicentre of the events. "Well, no one but Kaiba that is. I'm sorry did I say that out loud?" He asked.

" _Where did Pegasus come from?"_ Yugi asked over the mind link; completely confused.

 _'I don't know, but as long as he doesn't want to duel I don't really care right now.'_ Yami replied, too tired and hurting too much to care.

"Yugi, Yami… I'm sorry for today's events." Kaiba actually apologised causing Yami to wonder if he was still possessed.

"Kaiba?" He asked.

"I was controlled by an outside source. I won't let that happen again. And next time, I will beat you." The last part sounded more like Kaiba.

"Thank you."

"Yeah well, this conversation is over." Kaiba growled, "Come on Mokuba."

The two left.

Yugi and Yami grinned at each other, and then simultaneously, they both passed out.

* * *

The first thing Yami saw when he opened his eyes was a plain white ceiling.

If he was at home the ceiling would be Artex, if it was the dorms at Hogwarts there would have been fabric above his head, and if it was the Hospital Wing the ceilings would have been a lot higher and arched.

Yami sat up and looked around, his head spinning as he tried to get his bearings.

The Hospital. Domino Central Hospital to be precise, he remembered being in here with Yugi before.

Yugi...

Everything came flooding back. The duel, Anubis, Kaiba... Yugi!

The link was practically non existent and Yami attempted to scramble out of bed to find him but found himself face to face with a nurse the moment he got near the door. "Mr Muto, I suggest you go back to bed right now!" She growled, in a tone not that dissimilar to the one that Madam Pomfrey used to scare the gang out of the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.

"My brother, Yugi Muto..." Yami said hurriedly.

"He's in a different ward," The nurse said, her gaze softening, "You can go see him after we've done some tests, as long as you don't wake him up."

"How bad...?" Yami asked.

"It'll take a couple of weeks but once the worst of the burns have gone he'll be fine." She sighed, "That must have been a pretty bad fire."

Yami just looked down at the floor. Yugi had been hurt protecting him; of course the Doctors would have removed the Millennium Puzzle to treat Yugi.

"The necklace my brother wears..."

"Your older brother has it." The nurse said with a smile, "A nice young man, he and your sisters were the ones who brought you in."

Oh, Yami knew this story, the Muggle Hospitals wouldn't let anyone who wasn't family see the patients, so Joey and Tristan became their adopted older brothers, and the girls became sisters. Not that Tristan and Tea were around, Tea had managed to live her dream and go to America to study dance and Tristan had a job with a security company that he wouldn't talk about and wasn't home very often.

"Can I see them?"

"Well," The nurse said as she led Yami back to his bed, "The littler sister said she had to go back to work and she'd be back soon, but the other two are practically hovering."

Kaiba had Kari back in work already then. But then it had been Kaiba that had been injured, not Kari, so perhaps she'd gone back of her own fruition, knowing that Joey and Ombre would report everything that happened to her.

Yami put up with the poking and prodding without complaint so that he could get to Yugi's side quicker.

* * *

Joey and Ombre were in the waiting room when the nurse came in and told them that Yami had woken up but they weren't to badger him about things and they weren't to wake Yugi up either.

"Are you gonna move them into the same room?" Joey asked as the Nurse led the way down the corridors.

"Probably, Mr Kaiba said to give them the best care, and siblings are normally better off together after something like a fire, or an accident."

"Kaiba?" Ombre yelped.

"Yeah, he phoned earlier to ask if the Muto twins were here and when we informed him they were he said that he'd pay the bills."

Joey and Ombre looked shocked, wondering if Kari had said something to her boss.

"By the way, the entire hospital staff knows you're not the twins' family, but no one really cares, we're well aware that you guys are as close to family as they're going to get other then their Grandfather." Joey sighed, they'd been in here way too often if the entire staff roster was aware of this fact. "Speaking of Muto Solomon, one of you should probably phone him to tell him Yami's awake."

"I'll do it." Ombre said, "I need to tell Kari anyway."

"This is the door, make sure you're quiet." She said sternly, and let them in.

* * *

Yugi opened his eyes slowly.

He felt stiff and sore, but it wasn't until he attempted to sit up and he felt like every muscle in his body was screaming that he remembered what had happened, slumping back onto the soft, cool bed.

"Yugi?" Yugi smiled slightly and looked around properly.

Yami was slumped in a chair by the bed, Joey was leant against the window sill and Ombre was sat on it. "Is Kari alright?"

"She's gone back to work." Ombre answered, "She and the baby are fine."

"That's good." Yugi said with a soft smile.

"How're you feeling?" Yami asked, Yugi reached for the Millennium Puzzle and yelped as his shoulder felt like it was burnt. Remembering what had hit him, Yugi failed to be surprised. "Yugi!"

"I'm fine, just a little sore." Yugi said, attempting to sit up again.

"I wouldn't Yuge," Joey said, "The nurse said you're gonna be sore for a few weeks yet."

"How long have I been out?"

"A week, week and a half, Yami was out for a good five, six days." Ombre replied.

"Guess we're slowing down, hey Yami?" Yugi joked. Yami was giving him a speculative look and Yugi realised there was going to be a rant when the others left the room about jumping in front of that magical energy...

"We'll go tell the Doctors you're awake." Joey said, with a look at Ombre, who nodded and followed. The door shut behind them and Yami opened his mouth.

"Can you wait to tell me off until I've worked out how to get this bed so I can sit up?" Yugi cut him off. Yami waited until Yugi had got the bed to the point where he was comfortable and sat up, without being sat so far up that he wasn't supported by the bed. "All right, go on."

Yami just shook his head, "You could have been killed."

"You would have been if I hadn't done what I did." Yugi decided to get his points in before Yami started on his. "You didn't have enough energy left to survive that blast and I hadn't been hurt at all. It was better I got blasted then you got killed."

"You shouldn't have had to... it was..."

"You can't protect me from everything, Yami, sometimes you're the one who needs protecting and if I'm there, and I'm gonna be the one to do it. We have each other, sure we drive each other mental sometimes but we have to look out for each other. We're two halves of the same whole after all."

"But..."

"I know you think you're the one who's supposed to do the protecting, but you were too drained from saving us from the Pyramid of Light..."

"I couldn't have done it if you hadn't done... what did you do?" Yami asked and Yugi grinned having successfully managed to distract Yami from his rant.

"Well..."

* * *

"Kari?"

The woman in question looked up from her pile of work. Mana, who had trailed her to work, had opened the door to a concerned looking Mokuba. "What's wrong?"

"Are you really all right?" He asked, "Because Yugi and Yami ended up in the hospital and Seto's arms in a sling..."

"Honest, I'm fine squirt." Kari smiled at him, "I got off lightly, the others are..." Kari's phone went off and Mokuba was about to leave when Kari told him it was Ombre. "Ombre? What? Yami's up? That's great! Yugi's conscious too? Cool! Tell them I'll see them around half five." She looked over her shoulder, "One sec." She put her hand over the mouth piece, "You wanna come see 'em, squirt?"

"Only you can call me that." Mokuba scowled at her, "But yes, I want to come."

"I'll be bringing Mokuba too, is that alright? Sure? Ok, we'll see you then. Byes." Kari put the phone down and grinned at Mokuba, "You do realise what we have to do now?"

"What?"

"Get your brother's permission."

"I wanted you to come see him anyway. He's locked himself in his office and won't even let me in."

"What?" She looked at Mana who nodded and followed them down the corridor and up the lift.

On the thirty ninth floor, where Seto and Mokuba's offices and Personal Assistants were, Seto's PA was sitting behind her desk with a glazed fearful look on her face, and didn't immediately register their presence. Mokuba sighed slightly and tapped her desk, making the shell shocked PA jump a mile. "What's going on?" He asked the shaking girl.

"Oh, Master Mokuba sir, sorry." She glanced up. "Miss Ironhide!" She dropped the pen she had just picked up. "Mr Kaiba doesn't want any visitors. Sorry." She winced again, glancing at the door to Seto Kaiba's office.

"Tell him… no wait. Which button is it to buzz his office?" Kari demanded.

"I can't; he's threatened to fire the next person who disturbs him because he's doing something regarding Duel Monsters and..."

Kari pursed her lips, the only two things it could possibly were the Wizard Duel Monster cards or the new Duel Disk, and the second of those wasn't even in more then the planning stage... unless he was furious about the Duel still...

"I don't want to get fired." She said, looking at Mokuba.

"Don't worry, I won't let him." Mokuba reassured her.

"Fine." Kari sighed, Mana watched in amusement as her partner drew herself up to her full height and her most imposing, "SETO KAIBA; OPEN THE DOOR THIS INSTANT!"

The sounds of crashing from inside stopped for a moment, "GO AWAY IRONHIDE!" Kaiba roared.

"NO!" Kari roared back, the two PA's grinned at each other, listening to the two of them bellowing at each other was always interesting, "LET US IN RIGHT NOW!"

"GET BACK TO YOUR OFFICE!"

"NO. MOKUBA WANTS TO GO INTO YOUR OFFICE AND HE CAN'T GET THROUGH A LOCKED DOOR AND YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN TO HIM SO..."

"GO BACK TO YOUR DESK OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Kari visibly flinched back, looking back over her shoulder at the younger Kaiba who looked at her pleadingly.

"IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR, I'LL HAVE MANA BLAST IT TO PIECES!"

That did the trick, the double doors slammed open and before Kari or Mana could move, Kisara had swept out of the office, attacked Mana and pinned her.

Kari collapsed to her knees, pain racing through her, "Please, call her off!" Kari pleaded with Seto.

Mokuba's partner Duel Monster, a Blue Eyes White Chick by the name of Geki, launched out of Mokuba's office and tackled Kisara, sending the two dragons tumbling across the room. Mana shakily got to her feet and stood between Kaiba and her partner.

"Geki, stop it!" Mokuba called, "Seto, call Kisara off! I asked Kari to get you to open the door!"

"I don't take kindly to threats, Ironhide." Kaiba snapped at Kari.

"It worked didn't it?" Kari replied, _"Mana, are you alright?"_

_Fine, are you alright?_

" _I'm more worried about you, Kisara isn't a weak opponent."_

 _I'm fine, I promise._ Kari sighed and dared to glance at the two dragons, who'd stopped fighting, Kisara had settled for glaring at her. "What do you want?" Kaiba asked Mokuba.

"You've been locking yourself in your office every day since the Duel, and you're barely ever home long enough to eat, I wanted to see if you were all right!" Mokuba said, close to tears.

"Apologise to him." Kari growled at Kaiba.

"Get out." Kaiba snapped at her.

Kari froze, he couldn't... he wouldn't...

"You have five minutes before I call security."

He had.

"Big brother! No! You can't."

"Mokuba." Seto growled.

"Kari was following my orders. You can't fire her. I'll just hire her again."

"Both of you. GET OUT!" The last was a bellow, and they fled from the murderous look in his eyes.


	9. All Comes to a Close

Kari, Mokuba and Mana fled to Kari's office, packing some things and getting out of the building before security went looking for them.

Mana watched over her partner as the stunned pair walked the streets, too shocked to call anyone. Mana made her own mind up, _Shadowfae, Tobias, can you hear me?_

 _Mana, what's happened?_ Shadowfae asked _, we all felt that earlier, were you in a fight?"_

 _Are you alright?_ Tobias asked _, what was that earlier?_

_We had a run in with Kaiba and he tried to fire Kari. Mokuba said no. I'm not sure which of the Kaiba's are gonna win this battle of wills. Kisara and I had a disagreement, but I'm fine, she's fine and other then Kari got fired everything is fine._

_We're on our way. Tobias said._

_Ombre can't leave the Game Shop,_ Shadowfae sounded frustrated _, Mr Muto isn't back from lunch yet._

_Joey says we'll take her there._

* * *

The PAs were still in shock from the brawl that had erupted earlier, between the Dark Magician Girl belonging to Miss Ironhide, the Blue Eyes White Chick belonging to Master Mokuba and the Blue Eyes White Dragon belonging to Mr Kaiba when the banging started.

The two jumped out of their skin, before looking at each other with terrified looks.

Who was Mr Kaiba killing in there?

"You knock." Seto's PA gestured at the door.

"He's your boss." Mokuba's said, inching away from the door.

She scowled, gulped and lightly knocked, "Mr Kaiba, Sir? Do you need anything?"

A much calmer Seto Kaiba answered the door, but the PA couldn't help but notice the reddish mark on his forehead and the ragged look to his hair. "Coffee. And bring up the files on Ironhide." He growled.

_He's really gonna do it. Master Mokuba's not going to be happy._

* * *

It was the worst day of Kari's life.

She was as good as fired from a job she loved doing and needed the money from as well as which gave her somewhere to live, for helping the younger brother of the CEO, who was willing to fight for her, she'd managed to lose Mana, who'd been calling in her friends to give her a hand and was currently wandering around Domino Park with one Mokuba Kaiba, who had basically been kicked out of the Kaiba Corp building by his older brother.

She would have fought for her job, but Seto had looked ready to kill and while she would have been willing to risk her own safety, she hadn't dared risk him sending Kisara after Mana again.

Mokuba hadn't said much about the incident, he was being uncharacteristically quiet, but she could understand that, he'd just been ordered out of the building by a homicidal brother and now he wasn't sure quite what to think.

She didn't want to go to the Game Shop, where the others would fuss over her, and it was past visiting hours in the Hospital, so she just kept wandering, she knew Ombre knew where she was, after all Kari was still wearing the Orb, but she was grateful that she was keeping her distance, Kari just needed time to go over things in her head.

She paused on the bridge over the river, unless Mokuba was successful, they wouldn't have enough money to support the baby when it came or go to Hogwarts...

She felt dizzy. She hadn't eaten enough. She changed her plan, deciding to head for the flat, she was hungry and for a Summer evening, it was ridiculously cold.

Geki, who was flying overhead, dove and then soared again, enjoying the last thermals of the evening. She turned to Mokuba, "You all right squirt?"

To be fair it was a stupid question, and she wasn't surprised when she didn't get an answer from him.

Kari sighed, "Are you planning on going home?" She asked, concerned for her young friend.

Mokuba shook his head.

"Do you want to stay at my place?" Kari asked, "He won't come looking for you there since he's so mad at me."

"Are you sure you're not mad with me?" Mokuba asked, relieved.

"No, I'm not mad, not at you," Kari said with a small smile, then felt the chill which her stunned state hadn't allowed her to feel before, "Come on, let's get warmed up."

* * *

Ombre, Shadowfae and Mana were home, along with Joey and Tobias, when Kari, Mokuba and Geki arrived, shutting the door quietly behind them and turning around to find Ombre in one doorway, Mana in another, the dragons by the heater and Joey on the sofa. "I think they've been waiting for us." Kari said with a small smile.

"Where've you been?" Joey asked, "I've been..."

"Don't start with the over protectiveness Joey," Kari cut him off, "I know I've been wandering around town all day, but I needed some time to think and I don't want to talk about it. The squirt's staying here for the night, he can have my room and I'll sleep on the sofa."

"No." Ombre interjected, "You need a bed because of the little one, you can have mine Mokuba."

"Thank you." Mokuba said quietly.

Joey looked sceptically at the two of them and then shrugged, getting up and kissing his girlfriend. "We'll work something out."

"Mokuba's gonna try and stop him from firing me." Kari said, with a grateful smile at the boy who smiled back.

"Cool," Joey grinned at Mokuba, "And if Rich-Boy does fire you, Duke's already talking about giving you a job."

"Duke already knows?" Kari yelped.

"Most of the industry does, the PA's spread it around faster then the news about Professor Quirrel got around Hogwarts. You've had calls to the house with job offers from Duke, Industrial Illusions, Capcom, Nintendo and a couple of others."

"Wow," Kari grinned slightly, then looked down at Mokuba who was frowning, "I won't leave Kaiba Corp if I can help it."

"Your decision." Ombre shrugged, "Food's in the microwave, as per usual I cooked too much so there's more then enough for Mokuba too." Ombre turned to Joey, "Keep an eye on them for me?"

"I don't need a baby sitter, Ombre." Kari glared.

"Not yet, not till little one's born, but you're tired and I'd like Joey to stay. You need the company." Kari just smiled at Joey who grinned back as Ombre left the building.

* * *

Kaiba wasn't one to admit he'd made a mistake, however scaring his little brother out of Kaiba Corp had been a huge one.

He'd assumed that Mokuba would head back to the mansion, but when he'd phoned up to ask, Mokuba hadn't been seen there since he'd left this morning.

Obviously he wasn't ready to come home yet.

Mokuba still wasn't home by the time Seto had gotten through the doors at nine o'clock at night and Seto started getting worried.

He trusted that Geki could protect his brother from most things, that wasn't the issue, the issue was that Mokuba had never stayed away after a fight, he always came back.

But this time he hadn't.

Seto had finally pushed him too far away

Kaiba paced, wondering where Mokuba would go. Would he have stayed with Ironhide, or found somewhere else to stay?

He considered calling the flat Ironhide used when she was home from Hogwarts but admitted to himself that he wouldn't get an honest answer from them right now.

For the same reason he couldn't find out if Mokuba was staying at the Game Shop and he didn't have the Mutt's number even if he wanted to ask him.

He wondered if Mokuba was doing this deliberately to make him realise how wrong he'd been, but knew his brother wouldn't do that to him.

Kaiba really didn't know what to do.

Someone knocked on the door timidly. "Come in."

"Miss Ironhide at the door to see you, Sir." Roland said, "Shall I turn her away?"

"Kari?" Kaiba growled.

"Ombre Ironhide, Sir."

"Did she say what she wanted?"

"No, Sir, she just mentioned it was important."

"Send her to the Dinning Room. I'll meet her there." Kaiba growled.

"Yes Mr Kaiba." Roland shut the door again and Kaiba straightened himself out, going down to meet the yami of the woman he'd as good as fired. It had to be information on Mokuba or pleading for Kari's job, and one was a lead and the other was a welcome distraction. He'd tolerated Ironhide's attitude for long enough and threatening to get the Dark Magician Girl to blow up the doors to his office had been the final straw.

The woman who met him in the Dinning Room was too calm for someone who was about to plead for a friend or relative's job, "What do you want Ironhide? If this is about Kari's job..."

"Kari can find a new one, she's already got offers pouring in." Ombre shrugged, "That's not why I'm here."

Kaiba glowered, it was true that ex Kaiba Corp employees were usually snapped up by rival companies, after all a couple of years under him was worth four or five in any other company, but how did everyone in the industry know already?

He'd be having words with his PA in the morning.

"What do you want then?"

"It's about your brother, Mokuba."

Kaiba sat forward, he knew it had to be one of the two things, "What about him?"

"I thought you'd like to know that he's safe and sound." Ombre replied, "I won't tell you where, but suffice to say he's safe and unharmed and probably stuffed to bursting."

"How much?"

"Excuse me?"

"How much will it cost for you to tell me where my brother is?"

"That's your way to sort out everything isn't it." Ombre looked amused, "If in doubt, chuck money at it. Well this one won't get sorted using money, so I suggest you find another way. Goodnight Kaiba." She stood up.

"Ironhide…" He called as she made it halfway to the door.

"What?" She asked, a small, smug smirk on her face as she looked over her shoulder.

Kaiba had never realised just how scary Ombre could be when she wanted to before tonight and she wasn't even raging at him, "I wouldn't have hurt them."

"You certainly hurt Mana," Ombre's smirk turned into a glare, "Kari was afraid you'd do it again and you're the one who pushed Mokuba away."

"I know." Kaiba hated admitting his weakness and didn't catch her eyes.

"Is that why you pushed them away, you were afraid they'd hurt you? Or was it because you were afraid you'd hurt them?" Ombre asked.

Kaiba ran a hand through his hair, then looked at the stray hand in confusion, when had he picked up that nervous habit? "I don't want to talk about this."

"Until you work this out, Seto Kaiba, your brother's not going to want to come back." Ombre told him bluntly, her magenta eyes watching him carefully.

"Ombre…" Seto started, then shook his head and she started for the door once more, "Ombre," The yami paused, "Is Mana all right? Kisara was brutal earlier."

"Mana is fine," Ombre answered, one hand on the door handle, "Geki stopped Kisara from hurting her too much."

"You didn't have to reassure me after what I did today." Kaiba said as she opened the door, "Why did you?"

"Because it's what my Hikari would want if she wasn't so stunned about possibly losing her job."

"Is that the only reason?"

"I thought you should be allowed to know that your brother is safe and that he's being looked after." Ombre admitted, a thoughtful look on her face. "After all, you can't learn what you need to learn if you go mental looking for him." She nodded to him, "Goodnight Kaiba."

Kaiba nodded back and watched her leave, exiting the Mansion but leaving plenty unanswered questions for Kaiba to work out his own answers to.

* * *

When Ombre got back to the apartment, everyone was asleep. Joey had fallen asleep in one of the chairs and Kari and Mokuba had fallen asleep on the sofa. The Princess smiled and woke Kari up gently. "Hey, go to bed sleepy head."

"We were waiting for you to get back." Kari yawned quietly, trying not to wake up the sleeping boy next to her.

"I'll sort him out, you go." Ombre said with a grin.

Kari yawned, nodded and vanished into her bedroom. "G'night Ombre."

Ombre grinned slightly and woke Joey up. "Out."

Joey shrugged and left, used to Ombre's whims by now. She'd been like this all Summer so it wasn't like he wasn't used to her kicking him out randomly. "Night Ombre." He said as he shut the door.

"Mokuba?" Ombre asked as the boy stirred.

"Hey." Mokuba nodded once he got his bearings, "You alright?"

Ombre nodded, "My room's that one." She pointed to the open door of her bedroom. Mokuba nodded and headed inside, shutting the door behind himself.

Ombre led down on the sofa but sleep didn't come easy.

* * *

Seto Kaiba hadn't slept all night.

His mind had gone on overdrive the moment Ironhide had left the mansion, going over everything she had said.

It was obvious his brother was staying with the Ironhide's, but if Ombre had been telling the truth, Mokuba didn't want to see him and going after him now would only push him away.

Was this what she'd meant he had to learn? That he couldn't always have everything he wanted? Or was there more to it?

He'd ask Kari when she…

He couldn't ask Kari.

He'd fired her.

Her attempt to help Mokuba had been what had started this in the first place.

He shook his head, heading into work with no sleep and little interest in the outside world. Kaiba Corp could practically run itself for a few days, even without Seto and Mokuba's help. It was all the business deals and meetings that they dealt with that kept Kaiba Corp on top and he didn't have any of those for a week or so, they'd dealt with most of the major meetings the first two weeks back from school.

He'd been furious and Kisara more so when Kari had threatened to break down his door and he'd broken his own rule about letting his temper get the best of him. He was Seto Kaiba, he didn't loose his temper, not to a pair of women who should have known better then to threaten him.

His thoughts had none of the rage of yesterday though, not after realising last night that Mana could have been killed by Kisara in their shared rage, and he had no idea what that would have done to Kari.

He'd been doing it again, shutting people out because he'd made a mistake, because he'd failed.

Shutting Mokuba out.

Just as he had before Yugi's… no, it had been Yami's Mind Crush, which had set his mind straight.

Mokuba had gone to the one person in all of Kaiba Corp he knew wasn't afraid to face Seto in battle and would help him out if he needed her. Seto couldn't think how many times he'd gone to her, through Mokuba to ask advice or a favour.

No wonder Geki, who was normally pacifistic, had gone for Kisara quite so badly. Seto had ignored Geki's partner for days, locked him out of the office, gone for Mokuba's friend and then bellowed at him.

And Seto had felt the echo of Mana's pain through the damn link that connected all of their Duel Monsters…

No wonder they'd fled in fear when he'd ordered them out.

He'd been acting like he had before he'd been forced through shared living space, to interact with and trust in people. He'd hated it to start with, but he'd gotten quite used to sharing a dorm with his house mates. They didn't interfere with his work, and he was teaching them about computers in his spare time.

Kaiba stared out of his office window, just thinking about the mistakes he'd made over the last week.

The phone went and Seto strode over to his desk and picked it up. "Mokuba?"

"Mr Kaiba, Sir." Roland, of course it would be him, only the PA, Roland and Mokuba had this number. "I have news about your brother. Apparently he's gone to the mansion to pick up some clothes with the Ironhide's."

"Have the limo ready for me when I get down or there'll be hell to pay." Kaiba growled and headed straight down, Kisara launching out of the office window. ' _Don't hurt them.'_

 _I'll be careful._ Kisara replied.

* * *

They'd just been heading out of the mansion when Kisara had arrived and they'd been forced to leg it.

Mokuba had grabbed some more clothes and his laptop, along with a pile of work from Kaiba Corp and a rather large pile of comics that Mokuba had explained came from a shop that held them in reserve for him while he was away.

They'd legged it most of the way home, walking the down the last road and to the apartment building doors. Mana had held the door open and Shadowfae and Geki had swooped in above the three's heads as they headed for the flat the two girls shared.

Kari was now sat on the sofa, writing her weekly letters to everyone. The last ones had gone out before the Pyramid incident, she'd been distracted since and she wanted to tell everyone that they were fine and that they hadn't dropped off the face of the planet.

Ron's and Hermione's letters could go MA, Magical Airmail but Harry's letter would have to go MAM, Magical Airmail to Muggle, so it arrived in the UK quickly but arrived in a manner that wouldn't cause the Dursleys to throw a head fit.

Mokuba was attempting to do some work on his laptop with a dedication that made Ombre smile. He was staying here because his brother had pushed him away and yet he was still making sure his quota of the work was done and sent off by the end of the day.

Mokuba wasn't really working, he was attempting to write letters to his friends and failing miserably. He was trying to take his mind off of Seto, but trying to write to his Gryffindor friends was impossible. He didn't want to speak to any of them. He couldn't confide in any of them, it was as bad as the gang he used to lead.

They looked up to him because he was rich and had powerful family ties, the Gryffindors didn't care that he was Muggle Born (Or so they assumed, they'd been young when their parents had died and they didn't remember much about them, they'd never been around), or that sometimes he needed someone to talk to, someone he could talk to about things like this, just that he was their leader.

He couldn't even talk to Kari or Ombre about this, they had problems of their own and while he'd trust them with most things, the last thing they needed right now was more problems, Kari was pregnant and fired from Kaiba Corp, Ombre worked in the Kame Game Shop for nothing and Joey earned just enough to get by,

He couldn't drop his misery on top of them too.

"Squirt, could you get me some more paper from the desk? This letter to Hermione seems to be getting longer by itself."

"Magic?" Mokuba asked as he got up and looked for the paper on the desk.

"No, just filling her in on everything." Kari answered, chewing her pen, "Middle drawer, purple paper, Hermione gets purple paper, Harry blue, Ron green."

"Why does Ron get green?"

"To annoy him mostly." Ombre answered for her as Kari started writing rapidly on the new purple sheets, "Green to him represents Slytherin but Kari couldn't find lined red paper so she uses green to annoy him."

"Yeap." Kari smiled slightly as she continued writing.

Kari's phone rang and she tossed it to Ombre who caught it and answered in one smooth movement, "Ironhide residence? Oh, Joey…"

"Give me that!" Kari glared at her yami who sighed and passed her the phone, "Joey. Hi!"

Mokuba rolled his eyes as he was treated to ten minutes of typically girlfriendy talk, care of someone he wouldn't have expected it from. Then she put the phone down, grinned and slumped back into the sofa, "Joey'll be over in a couple of hours, apparently the store is insane, they could really use Yugi and Yami, but…" Kari shrugged. "Anubis did a number on both of them."

The phone rang again and once again it flew across the room, "Ironhide Residence? Kaiba?"

Kari and Mokuba froze, one looking up from his laptop, the other from her paper.

"They're busy at the moment. Why would? Ah. No, I won't tell him. Yes, I'll ask. Mokuba, do you want to talk to your brother?"

Mokuba grabbed the phone, "Se… I'm fine. I'm fine. You want to talk to me? Face to face? Are you going to fire Kari?"

The was a pause where Mokuba said nothing and there was no murmur from the phone.

Then a murmur.

"Good. If you promise her job is safe I'll come talk to you." Another pause, "Ok, where? Domino Park? Half an hour?" Mokuba looked at Ombre, who nodded, "I'll meet you there." Mokuba tossed the phone back to Ombre who just shut it off.

"Are you sure you're ready to see him?" Ombre asked.

Mokuba didn't look sure but nodded. "I have to talk to him, he's my brother."

"Do you want an escort?" Ombre asked, Kari put her paper down and started getting to her feet.

"Can you…?" Mokuba trailed off.

"Sure." Kari slipped her shoes on. "Let's go."

* * *

To Hermione,

Guess where Yugi and Yami landed themselves.

You get three guesses and the first two don't count.

Yes, you guessed it.

There was an… 'incident' during a Duel and Yami was drained of most of his life force and Yugi was badly injured so we had to take them to hospital.

They'll be fine, honest, Yami's almost fully recovered and Yugi's fine for the most part, the Doctors are keeping him in to keep an eye on him and to make sure he rests more then anything.

Seto's paying for their hospital treatment too, which shocked everyone, apparently since it was something he did which landed them in there, he's paying his debts, but I don't know why he does these things, he actually apologised to them the day it happened, just before he left and they passed out.

They'll be fully recovered in plenty of time for the new school year.

I can't believe that it's nearly the middle of the Summer already. I haven't got any of my homework done yet. I'm gonna have to take mine to the hospital with me, maybe keep Yugi company while he does his Potions essay (Blegh potions).

Would you believe I managed to get myself fired and rehired in the space of two days? It's strictly probationary status at the moment, but I'm sure it'll be fine, I just have to make sure that I don't do anything else to annoy the Boss… that I can get caught doing… I wonder…

Anyway we'll give you more details on the 'incident' when we get back to school, you know how things are. I'm sending a note round to Ron and Harry too, but Harry's letter will take forever since I have to send his the Muggle way, you know what his family are like. shrug

How's your Summer been for the last couple of weeks?

Kari and Ombre.

P.S. (Note continues for several pages)

* * *

To the entire gang,

Are you all mental?

What sort of incident? How badly was Yugi hurt? Is Yami alright? What happened? How did Kari get fired?

Kari, I'm going to kill you for not telling me more!

You'd better reply quickly, or I'm coming over there just to check on you all myself.

Hermione.

* * *

To Hermione,

In order.

Possibly.

A Duelling Incident of the type we don't like to talk about in public.

Depends on how badly injured you consider getting blasted by a big ball of dark magical fire is.

Yami's nearly got all his energy back, it started returning after the incident, guess the problem resolved when the uhhh damn it… when the bad guy was beaten.

I can't tell you until we're in England since we don't really want it to get out other then where people already know about certain M Items and you know what the post is like.

I annoyed Kaiba too much.

And yes, I'm aware you're going to kill me.

Kari.

* * *

To the gang,

I hope that Yugi and Yami are alright, not much is going on since we got back from holiday, so I'm bored, though I'd rather be bored then in St Mungo's. Yugi'll be out of hospital by now I bet. Looking forward to meeting up to exchange stories, I want to know what the incident was

Gotta go, Fred and George are being pests,

Ron.

* * *

To Harry,

Did you get the first letter?

If you did things are looking up from last time, Yami's out of hospital now and Yugi'll be out in just under a week. (Apparently he won't get enough rest at home so they're keeping him in).

I hope you're alright.

I've enclosed stamps with this letter since Hermione had it first.

Please reply soon or we might come hunting.

Kari.

* * *

(By owl)

To Harry,

If you've run away from home you should have contacted us, you have all of our phone numbers. We're all really worried about you. I found out in the end that you made it to Diagon Alley alright.

By the way, sorry but Joey, Ombre and I kind of had a run in with your family when me and Ombre came to see if you're alright. That's when we found out you weren't home, I figure an owl can find you in Diagon Alley.

There was an incident over the Summer so we have a lot to talk about,

Looking forward to seeing you in September,

Kari, Ombre, Joey, Yugi and Yami. (Mokuba says hi too and possibly Kaiba but who can tell)

* * *

To Kari,

Sorry for not getting in contact but I honestly thought I was going to be expelled from school. You're not the only ones to have an interesting Summer, though I have to ask if the incident SM related?

Please tell me you didn't injure my family too badly, I do need to go back there next summer,

Harry

* * *

Hi Harry,

Kari's late home from work so I'm writing the letter this week.

Yes, it was SM related, but everything is fine now. Yugi's getting out of the hospital in a couple of days and Yami's out already so it's all good.

No, we didn't injure your family, but we do have plans for escape routes for next year if you're interested just in case. Yami wanted to come with us, but he wasn't out the hospital then.

From

Everyone (including Kari who just got through the door)

PS Is your cousin involved in a gang because Joey got a gang-vibe off of him?

* * *

To everyone, (including Kari even if she's at work)

Yugi and Yami were in the hospital?

Why?

Dudley leads a gang, so yes, he is.

Joey gets gang-vibes? Is it because he used to be in one?

Is Japanese Hospital food better then Muggle Hospitals over here?

Harry.

PS I bet Joey scared Dudley to death. Shame Yami couldn't go, he'd have scared my entire family to death.

* * *

To Harry,

Yugi says Hospital food is bland and he's glad to be home, it's certainly been a while.

Yes they were in hospital but we had a big welcome home party for Yugi yesterday so everyone but Yugi, who's still on pain killers, is a little hungover.

Apparently I'm writing too loudly.

And yes apparently the vibes were because he was in a gang and he did scare Dudley.

Ombre (but everyone awake says hi)

* * *

To everyone,

When are you coming over for Hogwarts? I can't wait to show you something.

Hospital food the world over obviously doesn't change unless you're at Hogwarts…

You didn't tell me why Yugi was in hospital. You're all evil.

See you soon,

Harry.


	10. EXTRA: Visiting a Friend

The atmosphere on the plane was tense.

Kari had sent Harry two or three letters and they'd heard nothing from him so, fearing a repeat of the events of last Summer, where Dobby had managed to get Harry imprisoned in his room with none of his school stuff and little food, while the damn House Elf had stopped him from getting his mail.

They weren't going to let that sort of thing continue this Holiday.

Joey was uncomfortable in the suit he was wearing, it wasn't travel wear, it was something to look scary in.

He'd only gotten to come on this trip because Kari had convinced Seto that she needed a Bodyguard and he was easily as imposing as one when he needed to be. So, the black suit, the mirrored sunglasses, the imposing look… Who was he kidding?

He was looking forward to scaring the Dursleys.

* * *

Heathrow Airport was busy with holiday traffic when they entered the arrival lounge.

Joey was in his element, scowling at people to clear them a path and get them through customs in a record time.

A limo was waiting for them. "Ms Ironhide, we'll be travelling straight to Little Whingeing, Surry."

"ID?" Joey asked, stepping between Kari and the driver.

The Driver pulled out a laminated ID card, proving his identity as a Driver from one of Kaiba Corp's associates in the UK.

"Joseph." Kari growled slightly and he stepped aside, allowing Kari and Ombre to enter the black stretch limo. He grimaced at her as he got in too. He hated Joseph with a passion, but they'd agreed on the plane that Joey sounded too personal, not at all how a client would treat a Bodyguard.

He partly wished they could have brought the Duel Monsters along for this, but they just wouldn't have been able to control themselves. Harry had told them enough about how bad things were for Joey to know that the Duel Monsters wouldn't be restrained if Harry was being maltreated.

"Yami will be annoyed we didn't wait for him to be released from Hospital." Joey commented as he took off the glasses in the shade of the interior. "He wanted to scare the Dursleys himself."

"Yami understands." Ombre shrugged, as uncomfortable in her skirt suit as Joey was in his black one. "He was the one that pushed us to speak to Kaiba. He didn't want to leave Harry at the Dursleys without checking on him any longer."

Kari sighed and watched England pass. Travelling in the smart dress suit that she'd bought for a large meeting with Pegasus just after the Anubis Incident, she felt like an imposter, claiming to be an Executive of Kaiba Corp, when all she was really was a Section Manager, a Department Head, Seto and Mokuba Kaiba were the CEOs.

"Kari?" Joey asked gently, "You alright?"

"Just thinking," Kari turned away from the rapidly passing scenery, "We didn't work out how we were going to get Mr Dursley to talk to us, yet alone let us see Harry."

"Oh, that's easy." Ombre grinned. "We tell him this…"

* * *

Vernon Dursley watched as a black stretch limo pulled up outside Number 4 Privet Drive and two women and a tall man got out, spoke to the Driver, and then turned to his door.

They looked smart, the man was obviously a Bodyguard for one of the two ladies if not both and the two women could have passed for sisters.

He knew who they were, of course, he'd received a phone call from one Kaiba Seto, explaining that an Executive would be coming to see him today and Vernon was to treat her with the same respect he would treat any of his own Executives.

Everyone in the business world knew of Seto Kaiba, one of the most influential men in the world and someone that no sane man would want to cross.

The rumours were that he hadn't had anyone killed in over five years, but then Vernon wouldn't be surprised if someone of Mr Kaiba's status had someone to do his dirty work for him, maybe that blonde he had trailing the Executive he'd sent over here.

But why would they want to speak to him specifically?

If they wanted a building in the UK, they should speak to his company, not come to his home and invade his life.

How dare they?

Vernon controlled his temper, if he was disrespectful towards this EO, Kaiba Seto had sworn to come over and deal with him personally.

The doorbell rang and Dudley got to his feet slowly and followed his father to the door.

Vernon took a deep breath and opened it. "Miss Ironhide, I presume?" He asked.

The girl looked taken aback for a millisecond, then nodded, obviously hoping to have taken him by surprise, "Vernon Dursley?" She asked, her English tinged with a slight foreign hint but not overly obvious, like she'd moved abroad but never really gained the accent of the area.

Vernon bowed, having learnt about Japanese culture in order to impress some foreign CEOs a couple of years ago. "That is correct, please come in."

The Bodyguard entered first, looking around everywhere and then nodding to the EO and the woman that had to be her PA.

She entered warily, as if she was unsure of herself and was on her first job.

Vernon's smile became a great deal more certain, an unsure Executive was much easier to deal with and con then one who had years of experience and he led them into the living room, where Miss Ironhide and her PA sat down and took the accepted cups of tea while the Bodyguard stood over them.

He hadn't noticed the blonde's eyes lingering on the locks and bolts on the cupboard under the stairs.

The PA whispered in her ear and Miss Ironhide nodded. "Mr Dursley," She said, looking him straight in the eyes. Ok, maybe not that uncertain then, "We are here to discuss a certain young man who was supposed to show up to a Kaiba Corp Tournament, left this as his home address and then only showed up for one day, where a great deal of fuss was made over the boy's condition."

"A young man? What did he look like?" Vernon felt his mouth go dry. Dudley didn't do anything that Kaiba Corp could be interested in, then he remembered, those blasted Duel Monster cards that Dudley had wreaked, could that be what this was about?

"Messy black hair, piercing green eyes, good friends with Yugi and Yami Muto, the past and present Kings of Games." Miss Ironhide's brown eyes became sharp and he realised she was reading him like an open book, "A Mr Harry Potter?"

Vernon went purple, how dare that brat bring them down on him.

"I see you know the name." Miss Ironhide smirked, "I need to speak to him immediately regarding the penalty for pulling out of a Tournament without giving notice before his next match."

"I'm afraid he isn't around at the moment, the little brat ran away after causing some trouble and is currently staying under police guard in London, somewhere like Diagonally?" He missed the looks that passed around the group, relived ones, "I'm sorry I can't help you, but you're unlikely to find him."

"May we see where he's been sleeping?" The PA asked, "We were, after all, sent to see why he was in such a state."

"I'm afraid not, unless you have a warrant go searching through our house." Vernon approached the girls who put the cups on the table and were about to get to their feet when the Bodyguard got between him and the women and grabbed Vernon's wrist in such a firm grip he wasn't certain he could break it.

"No closer." The man growled in a much more accented voice then Miss Ironhide, obviously learning English as a second language, his eyes hidden behind the glasses, but his whole body language screaming protective.

Something exploded on the mantle shelf and Miss Ironhide shot to her feet, "Joseph!" She snapped, glaring at the Bodyguard. "Control!"

They were like the freaks who went to Potter's school!

"Get out of my house!" Vernon bellowed, forgetting control, forgetting that he was putting himself at risk of angering Seto Kaiba, he wanted these freaks out now!

"Move away from Miss Ironhide." The PA growled as Joseph let go of his wrist, getting to her feet, "We will leave once we are ready."

"I… I'll call the Police!" Vernon snarled.

"Do you think they scare us?" The PA asked, drawing a silver stick.

Not a stick, a wand.

"You're all freaks like Potter!" Vernon snapped, "I'll tell your employer!" He growled at Miss Ironhide, "And he'll fire you and then what will you do?"

"What's to say he isn't one of us?" The Executive had an aggravating smirk on her face and Vernon managed to push past the two in front and swung for the woman behind who's eyes widened in shock.

Then two huge black dragons interposed themselves, flaming at the mouth, between Miss Ironhide and Vernon, called from Japan by their partners' anger and fear, and angry that anyone would threaten someone carrying an egg.

"Shadowfae, Tobias." The relief in Miss Ironhide's tone was obvious, "Mana…" The girl, who had appeared just after the dragons, in barely any clothing and a ridiculous hat, helped the Executive to her feet. "Vernon Dursley, if Harry has been harmed in anyway, you will find that the Kaiba Corp lawyers won't go as easy on you as we have." She turned to Joseph and the PA, "Joseph, Ombre, lets go check out Diagon Alley."

The four humans and two dragons left without any more trouble, except the smashing sounds Vernon heard as the two dragons swooped out of the door. He raced into the hallway to find the coat rack knocked over and two expensive vases smashed.

The limo was gone before he could say anything.

* * *

The Leaky Cauldron was busy when the three of them entered, suit jackets off, the top three of Joey's buttons undone, and the mirrored sunglasses on top of Joey's messy blonde hair.

"The Ironhide Twins, Mr Wheeler? I hope you aren't expecting a room." Tom said, "We're full with summer visitors."

"No Sir." Kari said with a small smile betraying her serious attitude, "We were just wondering if Harry was staying here."

"Mr Potter? Didn't he send you a message? He's been here about a week."

"Is he in?"

"Is he safe?"

Tom smiled at the three's obvious relief. "He's safe but he went into Diagon Alley this morning, you might find him at Fotescue's Ice Cream Parlor."

"Thanks Tom." Joey grinned and the three headed for Diagon Alley.

* * *

The atmosphere on the Kaiba Corp plane was a lot lighter on the return journey.

In fact Kari couldn't stop giggling at the look on Vernon Dursley's face when the Dragons had appeared.

They hadn't had a chance to speak to Harry before they'd had to head for the airport, but they'd left a note with Tom and Kari was going to send a letter to him the moment she got home.

They weren't sure whether they were more mad that he hadn't contacted them, or that he'd had to run away from the Dursleys.

They'd wait until they had the full story to decide.

"That vase on the mantle piece wasn't our fault, was it accidental magic from you?" Ombre was asking Joey, a grin on her face.

Joey smiled ruefully, "I lost my temper, I didn't expect the Dragons to appear like they did either."

Ombre grinned and looked over her shoulder at the two Red Eyed Dragons who were curled up on seats, "I think it shocked them too, once they were over their anger." She said, turning back to Joey. "It's good to know we can do that though."

Joey just nodded, a firm grip on the arm rest, causing Ombre to cackle internally and Kari to give her an odd look. She'd forgotten Joey hated heights almost as much as Yami.

This trip hadn't been a waste at all…


End file.
